Prehistoric Norfolk

The prehistory of the County of Norfolk, England is broken into specific time periods.

Norfolk has a very rich prehistoric past, from the Palaeolithic era 950,000 years ago, to end of the Iron Age 2000 years ago. Indeed, Norfolk has the earliest evidence of human occupation of what is now Britain, and some of the country's best-preserved archaeological sites.

The period from almost three quarters of a million years ago until around 10,000 years ago.

During the Palaeolithic and Mesolithic periods the coast of Norfolk would have been 60–70 km further to the north than today, with much of the North Sea a wide, open plain. The size of the habitable land would have varied through the different glacial and interglacial periods up until the end of the Anglian Stage, as would have the climate, flora and fauna, and the general landscape of Norfolk. The Anglian glaciation was the 3rd from last glacial stage and occurred between 400,000 and 500,000 years ago. This stage was the last time the ice sheets reached East Anglia and it resulted in the deposits known as the Corton Formation.

The majority of the evidence for Lower and Middle Palaeolithic occupation in East Anglia survives as redeposited flakes and tools recovered from river gravel deposits. These river gravels were laid by the ancestral Thames and Bytham River systems. Large quantities of artefacts were identified from gravel quarries during the 19th and early 20th century due to the increased demand for gravel in the construction industry and the hand sorting of this gravel.

Bones and flint tools found in coastal deposits near Happisburgh. The artefacts were in situ in riverine deposits of the Cromer Forest Bed series. Experts previously thought the earliest humans arrived 700,000 years ago.

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