Public Lecture on Kings Lynn site

The results of AS' excavation and post-excavation analysis of a site at the Hardwick Industrial Estate in Kings Lynn have been presented at a public lecture in the town.

Andrew Newton of AS Ltd's Post-Excavation team presented the results of the project at a meeting of the West Norfolk and Kings Lynn Archaeological Society on Tuesday 20th January.

The site is notable for containing preserved Bronze Age and Iron Age timbers forming alignments of upright posts. Interpretations regarding these post alignments remain uncertain but it is possible that they represent boundaries, apparatus for traversing the wetland area that would have existed at the time that they were constructed, or were associated with gathering naturally occurring bog ore for the production of iron.

Extensive environmental evidence was recovered from the site and this has been used to build a model of the changing environmental conditions in the area from the late Neolithic onwards. The site, due to its position within what would have been the estuary of the great Ouse has been subjected to various phases of marine silting and freshwater peat formation.

The earliest human activity recorded at the site comprised the burial of an early Bronze Age collared urn containing the cremated remains of a young woman. A second cremation thought to be contemporary with this, but buried without a container, was located nearby. Some time after this, in the later Bronze Age the first timber posts, possibly forming a small structure located next to a pond or pool in the developing wetland, were put in place.

It was not until the Iron Age that further timber posts were erected and these appear to be contemporary with a large pit containing burnt material and iron slag. It is thought that this may be the remains of a bowl furnace for the smelting of iron ore, possibly bog ore recovered from the adjacent wetland. It is the presence of this possible furnace and the recovery of fragments of bog ore that have led to the suggestion that the timber post alignment may, in some way, have been associated with industrial activity.

Analysis of the site is now complete and the results will be published shortly.