A Beaker Burial and Iron Age to Roman Activity at Knights Hill, Kings Lynn, Norfolk: PXA and UPD

Between the 7th February and the 22nd April 2022 Oxford Archaeology (OA) East conducted an archaeological excavation (3.54ha) at Knights Hill, King’s Lynn, Norfolk (TF 6623 2252). This work followed a trenching evaluation (Wright 2015) which identified a Late Iron Age to Early Roman enclosure and associated features.
Four phases of activity were revealed within the excavation area that span the prehistoric to post‐medieval periods, with a peak during the Early Roman period.
The earliest activity (Phase 1) dated to the Early Bronze Age and comprised a small number of pits containing pottery and/or worked flint. A sample from one of these pits produced evidence of crabapple and hazelnuts. A single Beaker inhumation burial was also found. Phase 2 is represented by several pits that produced Middle Iron Age pottery, with sherds of this date also present in later features.
Most of the features dated to the Late Iron Age to Roman period (Phase 3) and comprised a possible sub‐square enclosure in the western part of the site that was later replaced by larger sub‐rectangular stock enclosure and associated internal features. To the east were several ditches, pits and a hearth which yielded pottery, animal bone, fired clay, charred grains and charcoal indicative of domestic settlement waste. Other finds from the site include metalworking debris and two copper‐alloy brooches of 1st‐century date.
Features assigned to the final post‐Roman phase (Phase 4) were scattered across the area and included a ditch, a pond and quarry pits that yielded small quantities of medieval and post‐medieval pottery, glass and clay tobacco pipe.