NORFOLK PREHISTORY 69 
Sir Cyril Fox’s distribution maps show that in late Bronze Age times 
there developed a steady drift of wealth and population south-westwards, 
more mixed soils being taken into cultivation and the lighter areas 
abandoned. 
Iron AGE. 
The Iron Age A witnesses a sporadic infiltration of nomadic bands 
from the Lower Rhine tumulus area between 500 and 400 B.c., entering 
Norfolk by the Wash. The earliest phase is represented in Apling’s 
discovery at West Harling, where the Hallstatt pottery shows characteristic 
Bronze Age influence, and by Armstrong’s find at Grime’s Graves. The 
tumulus at Warborough Hill, Stiffkey, recently excavated by R. R. Clarke 
suggests an independent coast landing, and represents the unusual 
phenomenon of having been utilised in late Romano-British times as a 
refuse pit. The early settlement at Runcton Holme **® was slightly 
later than these. 
Iron Age B is best represented by the peasant settlement at Runcton 
Holme, where occupation continued till the first century a.p. Whilst 
the many Norfolk earthworks await excavation, it appears that some, at 
any rate, may be allocated to this period. The most perfect and impressive, 
the double circular chalk-rubble ramparts at Warham, yielded fragments 
of pottery similar in type to that at Runcton Holme and also some 
“decorated sherds recalling genuine La Tene of Glastonbury.’ Other 
similar earthworks at Hunstanton, Hunworth, Tasburgh, South Creake 
and Castle Acre are also probably pre-Roman. ‘The enclosures adjoining 
Narborough and Caistor probably belong to this period. 
The chariot burials of the Fen border show that the Parisii penetrated 
to Norfolk and suggest the origin of the historical Iceni. 
The northward-pressing Belgic invaders of Iron Age C obviously 
met with desperate resistance and failed to extend their influence over 
Norfolk, coin distribution maps showing clearly a bare ‘ no man’s land’ 
along the border. Like the other non-Belgic tribes the Iceni were pro- 
Roman and became allies of the invaders. 
The retarded Romanisation of Runcton Holme shows that Norfolk 
remained a ‘ backward area ’—a tendency emphasised by the terrible 
vengeance following Boudicca’s rising. 
The work of the Fenland Research Committee, however, shows that, 
in contrast to the rest of the country, in early Romano-British times the 
Fens (which then occupied a higher level) were well populated and fully 
tilled. The air photographs are showing the settlements, and Fowler’s 
recognition of the ‘ roddens’ as the former stream beds is helping to 
direct archeological investigation. Hawkes remarks, ‘In what we can 
perceive from air photographs of the nucleation of fields around various 
settlements and such differential characters as may exist among the 
fields so nucleated, we have economic and sociological evidence at hand 
such as has never been available before.’ *° 
£5" BoP L St EASON LEN ii; ip: {4 PUPS. Bil MUL i, p.233< 
= Geographical Journal, LXXXIIL, No. 1. 
