Review: Cliffs End Farm: A Mortuary And Ritual Site Of The Bronze Age, Iron Age And Anglo-Saxon Period (original) (raw)
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A Middle Neolithic enclosure and mortuary deposit at Banbury Lane, Northampton: an interim report
Northamptonshire Archaeology, 2012
A triple-ditched circular enclosure, 23m in diameter with a central space 7.8m in diameter, was excavated in advance of new housing. The outer two ditches had single entrances to the north-west. A possible narrow entrance through the inner ditch had been blocked by an elongated pit, which was packed from bottom to top with a dense mass of disarticulated human bone, from perhaps 130 individuals. Only selected bones, particularly the femur with lesser quantities of the other major limb bones, had been collected for deposition in the pit. Fragments of skull are present in some quantity but vertebra and ribs are rare, and there are no hand or foot bones. Initial examination of the bone has recorded the presence of frequent lesions around the major limb joints, suggesting that the deposited material may have come from partially decayed corpses that had been forcibly dismembered to separate the major long bone joints. However, it will require much further analysis before the full story of the burial rite and the treatment of the individuals will be more fully understood. Initial radiocarbon dates indicate that the bone deposit was the product of a single event occurring in the Middle Neolithic (3360-3100 cal BC), although a more extensive programme of dating will be needed to establish the chronology of the whole monument in relation to the mortuary deposit.
Wessex Archaeology Report 31, 2014
Excavations at Cliffs End Farm undertaken in 2004/5 uncovered a dense area of archaeological remains including Bronze Age barrows and enclosures, a large prehistoric mortuary feature, and a small early 6th to late 7th century Anglo-Saxon inhumation cemetery. An extraordinary series of human and animal remains were recovered from the Late Bronze Age–Middle Iron Age mortuary feature, revealing a wealth of evidence for mortuary rites including exposure, excarnation and curation. The site seems to have been largely abandoned in the later Iron Age and very little Romano-British activity was identified. In the early 6th century a small inhumation cemetery was established. Very little human bone survived within the 21 graves, where the burial environment differed from that within the prehistoric mortuary feature, but grave goods indicate ‘females’ and ‘males’ were buried here. Richly furnished graves included that of a ‘female’ buried with a necklace, a pair of brooches and a purse, as well as a ‘male’ with a shield covering his face, a knife and spearhead. Overlapping with the use of the cemetery in the Early Anglo-Saxon period, but continuing into, at least, the 11th century, are 74 pits confined to the southern part, many of which contain large quantities of marine shell, probably consumed locally at communal gatherings. English Heritage funded an extensive programme of radiocarbon and isotope analyses, which have produced some surprising results that shed new light on long distance contacts, mobility and mortuary rites during later prehistory.
Wiltshire Archaeological and Natural History Magazine 114: 81-121, 2021
After a gap of almost two decades further investigations were initiated at this remarkable late prehistoric midden site, supported by Operation Nightingale/Breaking Ground Heritage. Geophysical survey clarified the extent of the broadly contemporary enclosure surrounding the midden, as well as other related features, while subsequent excavations provided new information on the midden, the enclosure and settlement. Two small trenches in the northeast half of the midden revealed a different sequence and produced far fewer finds than the 1992−3 excavations in the southwest half, demonstrating that it is not a homogeneous mound. A substantial ditch and associated bank, largely levelled by the late Roman period, may have been contemporary with or pre-dated the early development of the midden, while some 150 postholes attested to the presence of numerous roundhouses and other structures within the enclosure. Overall, a date range of c. 1000−500 cal. BC and possibly later is suggested from radiocarbon dating and pottery, the main phase of midden development perhaps later than the majority of the settlement. Furthermore, recent results of radiocarbon dating of material from the earlier excavations suggest the site sequence may continue as late as c. 400 cal. BC. Radiocarbon dating of the few human remains has also highlighted the likelihood that some were curated, the probable intervals between the dates of death and deposition ranging from a few decades to three centuries. Finds and environmental assemblages are generally consistent with those previously found, but a few sherds of scratch cordoned bowl represent a significant new discovery, as does a unique copper alloy 'pendant' of possible continental origin. Evidence now indicates that cattle, as well as sheep and pigs, were intensively managed and slaughtered on site, with the isotope data suggesting local origins for most of the animals, though some cattle may have been raised on pasturage further afield.
Human bone, in An Early Beaker funerary monument at Porton Down, Wiltshire
Wiltshire Archaeological and Natural HIstory Magazine 109, 38-82, 2016
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Middle Neolithic pits and a burial at West Amesbury, Wiltshire
The Archaeological Journal, 2020
Excavations on the south-eastern slopes of King Barrow Ridge, 1.5 km east of Stonehenge, revealed five pits, a grave and other features of Middle Neolithic date. Analysis of the pit assemblages and the partial inhumation interred in the grave has provided insights into lifeways in this landscape in the late fourth millennium cal BC. Evidence suggests that the area was visited by a pastoralist, mobile community on a semi-regular basis for a significant period, in late autumn or winter. Selected remnants of craft-working and consumption were deposited in pits, before deliberate infilling. These depositions repeatedly memorialised activity on the hillside at a time of contemporary activity elsewhere on King Barrow Ridge and at the future site of Stonehenge. Middle Neolithic pits are present in significant numbers across King Barrow Ridge, and alongside pits in the Durrington area, form one of the densest concentrations of such activity in the region. Long distance mobility is suggested by the possible Irish origins of the inhumation, the first Middle Neolithic individual excavated in the environs of Stonehenge. Whilst of significance for understanding the Middle Neolithic in the WHS and the region, this research also hints at the roots of Late Neolithic monumentalisation of this landscape.
Excavations at Cliffs End Farm undertaken in 2004/5 uncovered a dense area of archaeological remains including Bronze Age barrows and enclosures, a large prehistoric mortuary feature, and a small early 6th to late 7th century Anglo-Saxon inhumation cemetery. An extraordinary series of human and animal remains were recovered from the Late Bronze Age–Middle Iron Age mortuary feature, revealing a wealth of evidence for mortuary rites including exposure, excarnation and curation. The site seems to have been largely abandoned in the later Iron Age and very little Romano-British activity was identified. In the early 6th century a small inhumation cemetery was established. Very little human bone survived within the 21 graves, where the burial environment differed from that within the prehistoric mortuary feature, but grave goods indicate ‘females’ and ‘males’ were buried here. Richly furnished graves included that of a ‘female’ buried with a necklace, a pair of brooches and a purse, as wel...