60 SCIENTIFIC SURVEY OF NORWICH AND DISTRICT 
VII. 
NORFOLK PREHISTORY 
BY 
LE. SAINTY,, B.Sc. 
East ANGLIA has been so closely associated with English prehistory from 
the first recognition of palzoliths at Hoxne by Frere in 1797 to ‘ the 
most remarkable advance in English prehistoric studies achieved in 
recent years’ 1—the discovery of pre-Crag artifacts—that it was fitting 
that Norwich should witness the foundation of the Prehistoric Society 
(of East Anglia) by W. G. Clarke in 1908. 
The chief reason for early man’s activity in this area is the fine quality 
and abundant quantity of the flint, derived mainly from the Upper Chalk 
and easily obtainable in the exposures on the valley slopes or loose in the 
huge masses of gravels. The preservation of the deposits variously 
classified as Late Pliocene or Early Pleistocene has given opportunities 
for the study of the activities of pre-Palzeolithic man which are unequalled 
elsewhere. In post-Palzolithic times the early agriculturists found the 
light, permeable, and loamy soils suitable for their needs, whilst the 
absence of heavy clay areas with their accompanying dense forests allowed 
of easy penetration. The earlier invaders could obtain access by land, 
the North Sea basin reaching its present level by a depression occurring 
probably as late as Neolithic times. ‘The county of course forms part of 
Fox’s ‘ lowland ’ area, upon which successive waves of invaders imposed 
their cultures, and its relations have been ever with the east and south- 
east, with the Rhine mouth rather than with France and Spain. 
THE STONE BED.? 
The earliest implementiferous deposit in the area is the ‘ stone bed,’ 
which represents the spreading of the unfloatable debris of the Tertiary 
land surface by the advancing Crag Sea. It forms a deposit about 
1 ft. thick, heavily cemented by ferruginous matter, and resting 
immediately on the surface of the chalk, extending from the south of 
Norwich as far west as Guist and north to Weybourne. It consists 
almost entirely of flint, with occasional quartz or quartzite, seldom any 
igneous material, sporadic fossil bones, and, in patches, typical Crag 
shells. In the Norwich area it is usually sealed in by up to 20 ft. of 
the marine deposits of the Crag; on the north coast the boulder clay 
occasionally cuts down through it into the chalk. The flint itself is 
mainly the fine quality, thin crusted grey-black flint of the Upper Chalk, 
1 Kendrick and Hawkes, Archaeology in England and Wales, 1914-1931, P. 7. 
2 Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society of East Anglia, Vol. VI, Pt. ii, pp. 57-71. 
