Whilst rebuilding the Thetford Forest Archaeological Survey website, it occurred to me that when examining the late prehistoric Brecks NCA (National Character Area), it is important that we do not divide the district from the nearby Fen-edge. In the sandy, drought-prone soils of the Brecks, water has always been important. Historical parish boundaries in Breckland often stretch out to water supplies, enabling shepherds and herders to reach vital watering spots for livestock. This importance was perhaps equally important during late prehistory. Any forms of settlement most likely concentrated on the river valleys, and along the fen-edge of the Brecks. Just as they still do today.
The rivers of the Brecks flow westwards to discharge into the waterways of the Fen wetlands. The edge of the Fens, was likely attractive to human occupation, then and now. This is supported by the archaeological record.
I have produced this map, highlighting wetlands, rivers, meres, and pingos, known to have existed during Late Prehistory. The red star represents the Grimes Graves Late Neolithic flint-mine site. Here I am showing the rivers and waterways of that period as an extension of the yellow highlighted fen-edge. This is nothing new, but I want to reinforce, that to understand the late prehistory of the Brecks from the Mesolithic through to the Iron-Age, it important not to divide it from the wetlands of the Fens.
The Post-Glacial Landscape of the Fens (c. 10,000 – 6,000 years ago) Early to Mid Mesolithic.
At the end of the last Ice Age, the area wasn't a wetland but a dry, forested valley. The Fens were a very different, dry environment for the visiting hunter-foragers of the Earlier Mesolithic. The rivers we now recognise as the Great Ouse, Nene, and Welland were inland tributaries flowing towards a coastline much further north. As the climate warmed, and sea levels rose, Britain separated from continental Europe. By approximately 7,800 years ago, a major marine transgression began to absorb the dry, forested valleys into a coastal body of water.
The Rise of the Wetlands (c. 6,000 – 2,000 years ago) Early Neolithic to Late Iron-Age
As the sea pushed inland, it created a complex, fluctuating environment:
The "Black Fens". Inland, away from direct marine influence, impeded drainage caused rivers to flood, creating vast, stagnant freshwater bogs. Here, thick layers of peat accumulated, trapping ancient forests that had once thrived on the valley floor. These are the "bog oaks" often discovered today—remnants of the forests drowned as the water table rose.
The "Silt Fens". Closer to the Wash, marine and estuarine clays and silts were deposited during successive tidal advances and retreats.
Human Adaptation. Early prehistoric societies lived on the "islands" of higher Jurassic clay (like Ely) and along the fen edges. By the Bronze Age (notably sites like Flag Fen and Must Farm), communities had mastered the landscape, building sophisticated wooden track-ways and platforms to traverse the marshy, water-logged terrain.
One of the most distinct features of the Fenland are the roddons. These are raised, winding banks of silt and sand that stand 2–3 metres above the surrounding peat. They represent the fossilised beds of ancient tidal creeks. As the surrounding peat shrank due to subsequent drainage and oxidation, these silt-filled channels were left standing as positive topographical features, tracing the paths where water once flowed through the marsh.
Benefits of this landscape (Brecks combined with Fen-edge and rivers)
The Breckland Plateau offered light soil that could easily be broken for agriculture. It has been suggested that the sandy soils of Early Neolithic Breckland, would have supported a more open wildwood, a natural woodland pasture for livestock.
It also offered access to incredibly high quality raw material of flint. Not only the hard to obtain floorstone flint. But spread all over the surface of its sandy soils.
The river valleys of the Brecks in turn, offered transport corridors. The prehistoric highways of the British wildwood. Their riparian margins and lower terraces would have offered seasonal alluvial pasture. The westward flowing river valleys of the Brecks, discharged into the ever-changing waterways of the Fens - and onwards to the South and the West. Or northwards to the North Sea and coastal resources.
The Fen-edge offered high-protein hunting and fishing (including eel trapping). And it gave access to building materials of reed and sedge. The edges would have offered rich, seasonal grazing of livestock.
The sands of the Brecks, and the peat of the Fens together, provided an attractive nexus, for trade, and social life. We are aware that on the Fen-Edge itself (and at mere sites in the Brecks), that the open waters and marshes had a ritual, and belief-system value. A meeting of two worlds as epitomised by the Middle Bronze Age Flag Fen site. With such a rich mixture of local resources.
The Thetford Forest Archaeological Project revealed that flint knapping debris, waste cores, and hammer-stones often increase with frequency on the terraces closest to the rivers.
Above. A fist full of flint flakes in Thetford Forest, Breckland. Picked up on a forest path.