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Happisburgh Site 1
Norfolk

 

 

Site Number 25 (This is an AHOB Key Site)
Nearest Town: Happisburgh
National Grid Reference: TG388306
Lat: 52.82 Lon: 1.54266

The site at Happisburgh lies on the foreshore about 1 km to the south of the village. It was first discovered by local resident Mike Chambers in 2000 when he recovered a handaxe lying in organic mud. Fieldwork by AHOB (2004) and the University of Leiden (2009-2012) have excavated the organic muds and underlying organic clays and sands for the recovery flint artefacts, fauna and flora (Ashton et al. 2008). The sediments infill a channel that lies beneath the cliffs formed of Anglian glacial sediments (MIS 12). The sediments form part of the Cromer Forest-bed Formation and have been attributed to a late Cromerian Complex age (probably MIS 13) based on the presence of Arvicola cantiana. The combination of faunal and floral remains indicates marshland on the edge of a slow-flowing river with surrounding heathland and boreal forest in a cool-temperate climate (Coope 2006; Ashton et al. 2008). The in situ flint assemblage consists of almost 300 flakes, simple flake tools, cores and a single, thin, ovate biface. The archaeological evidence also comprises humanly modified bones of rhinoceros, roe deer and bovid, indicative of butchery by humans.

Nearby Site 3 is between 800,000 and 950,000 years old, containing the oldest evidence of human occupation of northern Europe at a time when the climate was similar to today.

Archaeological Summary

Artefacts from AHOB (2004), Norwich Castle Museum (collected 2000-2011), Leiden (2009-12)

Fieldwork

AHOB

NCM

Leiden

Context

Organic mud/clay

Organic mud/clay

Organic silty sand

Handaxe

0

1

0

Flake tools

4

0

5

Cores

1

2

10

Flakes

33

33

84

Chips

32

0

43


Horizons recorded at Happisburgh Site 1

Unit Name Epoch Biozone MIS
Happisburgh 1 (Horz Num: 25) Middle Pleistocene 'Cromerian' 13

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