April – The Arminghall Henge

Our speaker for April is Andy Hutcheson who will be talking about the Arminghall Henge. The Later Prehistoric Norfolk Project returned to the site during the summer of last year to re-date the components of the henge and to better understand its context in the landscape. Andy’s talk will look at the project’s findings and discuss the wider community that took part in the work.

Arminghall Henge just to the south of Norwich was discovered in 1929 during an aerial survey of Caistor Roman Town by Wing Commander Insall VC. A fieldwork campaign during the summer of 1935, led by Graham Clark, confirmed the interpretation of the aerial photographic evidence demonstrating a timber circle surrounded by an inner ditch, a bank, and an out ditch. Clark’s work dated the inner ditch to the early Bronze Age. Charcoal samples taken during Clark’s excavations from one of the timber circle post holes for the purposes of species identification remained in Norwich Castle Museum until 1961 when it was radiocarbon dated by the British Museum Laboratory to 4440 plus or minus 150 BCE. This was much later refined using a calibration curve to 3630-2625 cal BCE, effectively spanning most of the Neolithic period.

Andy Hutcheson is Research Fellow for Archaeology and Heritage at the Sainsbury Institute, the lead for the Later Prehistoric Norfolk Project.

We’ll be meeting at Needham Village Hall, High Road, Needham, IP20 9LB on Saturday 22nd April at 2.00pm. Admission is £3.00, all are welcome and there’s no need to book. The usual refreshments will be available.

_{Images (c) Andy Hutcheson/the Sainsbury Institute.}