Attitudes to Disposal of the Dead - Gazetteer Query Form

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Note that there may be a few slight discrepancies between counts given in the text and the returned results in the gazetteer. This is a result of corrections and amendments (not updates) made to the gazetteer since the research was published in BAR. This does not materially affect the picture presented but does add more detail.

Site name Itford Hill Barrow, Beddingham

Site number 1110

Burial codes 4005 4009 4022 4024 4025 4028 4030 4033 4041 4046 4051 4053 4065 4075 4081 4085 4093 4098 4101 4104 4107 4111 4128 4143 4151 4152 4153 4161 4181 3005 3009 3022 3024 3025 3028 3030 3033 3036 3041 3048 3051 3065 3075 3084 3085 3092 3098 3104 3105 3107 3108 3110 3111 3128 3143 3153 3159 3161 3173 3181

2500bc-14/1300bc A barrow with a low mound incorporating flint nodules, a ditch causewayed at the south and with 12 regularly spaced stake and post holes running along the bottom, the mound covering a near central primary cremation of a middle aged man whose burnt bones were placed with flints and charcoal in a large inverted Middle Bronze Age 2 urn set in an irregular depression. This also contained a stake hole 0.6m to the south of the burial. Over 80 flints, burnt and not, including worked flints were over and around the urn.

The ditch was not a true circle, but an irregular series of quarries connected together. It had been refilled with flints of all kinds (whole nodules, struck flakes, cores, worked flints, utilised flints and flint waste) with the interstices filled with brown soil, before silting could occur, the stakes being withdrawn first. Before refilling took place a cremation C16 was scattered with a few sherds on the bottom of the ditch.

14/1300bc-8/700bc To the south and south west beside the causewayed entrance there was an area of natural and knapped flints, and there were 15 cremations in and under the flints, making 17 in all for the barrow and platform together, representing 14-19 individuals. Only 3 were buried with a more or less complete urn, 2 had 50-75% of their urn, the others having a few sherds, or in the case of 4 none. Old, damaged or repaired urns were chosen as receptacles. Burial 10 for example contained two thirds of a pot, the missing part having been excavated from the settlement site 20 years before (Site 1088), so linking the two sites. The urns and pots were of barrel, bucket and globular types. There were also 95 Beaker sherds of the Southern British style in and around the cremation area, possibly sealed in by the area's later reuse.

Each of the platform cremations was placed in a hollow or hole dug into the solid chalk, 7 of them with a small stake hole. Three (C2,3,13) were only rated as possible cremations but were very closely associated with pottery and bone surface finds so may perhaps reasonably be counted as such, and one contained no bone (C15). The excavator took the deposits of burnt flints, and dark earth or charcoal associated with the unurned burials as evidence for a cremation. The cremations were of at least 14 people: 2 middle aged or elderly, 3 young adults, 4 children and 3 persons 'not infants'. Absence of certain bones was thought by one commentator possibly to indicate cremation of defleshed bodies (Petersen 1981).

There was a huge quantity of flint knapping waste (c40,000 items) in the ditch and barrow and in the platform, indistinguishable from Neolithic type. Two broken used whetstones were found, one at the base of the topsoil, one in it.

Kalis Corner, Kimpton (Site 823) offers a parallel for the platform cemetery.

Remains/Period Y4 Y3

County Sussex

Region SE

National grid square TQ

X coordinate 447

Y coordinate 54

Bibliographic source Selkirk 1972d, Holden 1972

Query

Site name	Itford Hill Barrow, Beddingham
Site number	1110
Burial codes	4005 4009 4022 4024 4025 4028 4030 4033 4041 4046 4051 4053 4065 4075 4081 4085 4093 4098 4101 4104 4107 4111 4128 4143 4151 4152 4153 4161 4181 3005 3009 3022 3024 3025 3028 3030 3033 3036 3041 3048 3051 3065 3075 3084 3085 3092 3098 3104 3105 3107 3108 3110 3111 3128 3143 3153 3159 3161 3173 3181
2500bc-14/1300bc	A barrow with a low mound incorporating flint nodules, a ditch causewayed at the south and with 12 regularly spaced stake and post holes running along the bottom, the mound covering a near central primary cremation of a middle aged man whose burnt bones were placed with flints and charcoal in a large inverted Middle Bronze Age 2 urn set in an irregular depression. This also contained a stake hole 0.6m to the south of the burial. Over 80 flints, burnt and not, including worked flints were over and around the urn. The ditch was not a true circle, but an irregular series of quarries connected together. It had been refilled with flints of all kinds (whole nodules, struck flakes, cores, worked flints, utilised flints and flint waste) with the interstices filled with brown soil, before silting could occur, the stakes being withdrawn first. Before refilling took place a cremation C16 was scattered with a few sherds on the bottom of the ditch.
14/1300bc-8/700bc	To the south and south west beside the causewayed entrance there was an area of natural and knapped flints, and there were 15 cremations in and under the flints, making 17 in all for the barrow and platform together, representing 14-19 individuals. Only 3 were buried with a more or less complete urn, 2 had 50-75% of their urn, the others having a few sherds, or in the case of 4 none. Old, damaged or repaired urns were chosen as receptacles. Burial 10 for example contained two thirds of a pot, the missing part having been excavated from the settlement site 20 years before (Site 1088), so linking the two sites. The urns and pots were of barrel, bucket and globular types. There were also 95 Beaker sherds of the Southern British style in and around the cremation area, possibly sealed in by the area's later reuse. Each of the platform cremations was placed in a hollow or hole dug into the solid chalk, 7 of them with a small stake hole. Three (C2,3,13) were only rated as possible cremations but were very closely associated with pottery and bone surface finds so may perhaps reasonably be counted as such, and one contained no bone (C15). The excavator took the deposits of burnt flints, and dark earth or charcoal associated with the unurned burials as evidence for a cremation. The cremations were of at least 14 people: 2 middle aged or elderly, 3 young adults, 4 children and 3 persons 'not infants'. Absence of certain bones was thought by one commentator possibly to indicate cremation of defleshed bodies (Petersen 1981). There was a huge quantity of flint knapping waste (c40,000 items) in the ditch and barrow and in the platform, indistinguishable from Neolithic type. Two broken used whetstones were found, one at the base of the topsoil, one in it. Kalis Corner, Kimpton (Site 823) offers a parallel for the platform cemetery.
Remains/Period	Y4 Y3
County	Sussex
Region	SE
National grid square	TQ
X coordinate	447
Y coordinate	54
Bibliographic source	Selkirk 1972d, Holden 1972