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 Maiden Bower Hill Fort, Houghton Regis

Site number 1236

Burial codes 2003 2009 2021 2023 2026 2028 2030 2035 2042 2047 2051 2053 2065 2071 2075 2084 2092 2098 2104 2108 2109 2110 2111 2127 2128 2143 2151 2153 2156 2171 2181 2182 2183

8/700bc-100bc A section of the hill fort ditch exposed in quarrying revealed the skeleton of an adult oriented N, facing E, lying crouched on the left side on the floor of the ditch and surrounded by chalk blocks. In the same stratum of clean chalk rubble 4.26m away were the skeletons of two children c6 and c10. Above the first skeleton were three adults who had been beheaded and the skeleton of a baby (dating of these?).

A pit found in the centre of the south eastern entrance was 4.2m long x 3-3.3m deep and contained disarticulated bones of more than 50 individuals together with animal bones, charcoal, iron nails, and bronze and pottery fragments. Above this deposit and beneath a large sandstone slab was a chalk block cist containing three broken leg bones. (War grave or massacre site?).

[Avery questions the security of all this dating as stratigraphical distinctions were not reported. He states that the cist was probably of Roman or later date, and the elongated pit could have been part of a Neolithic ditch (if rather deep for that), or a burial pit or plague pit of some later date].

Remains/Period Y2

County Bedfordshire

Region SE

National grid square SP

X coordinate 997

Y coordinate 225

Bibliographic source Matthews 1976, Whimster 1981, Avery 1993

Query

Site name	Maiden Bower Hill Fort, Houghton Regis
Site number	1236
Burial codes	2003 2009 2021 2023 2026 2028 2030 2035 2042 2047 2051 2053 2065 2071 2075 2084 2092 2098 2104 2108 2109 2110 2111 2127 2128 2143 2151 2153 2156 2171 2181 2182 2183
8/700bc-100bc	A section of the hill fort ditch exposed in quarrying revealed the skeleton of an adult oriented N, facing E, lying crouched on the left side on the floor of the ditch and surrounded by chalk blocks. In the same stratum of clean chalk rubble 4.26m away were the skeletons of two children c6 and c10. Above the first skeleton were three adults who had been beheaded and the skeleton of a baby (dating of these?). A pit found in the centre of the south eastern entrance was 4.2m long x 3-3.3m deep and contained disarticulated bones of more than 50 individuals together with animal bones, charcoal, iron nails, and bronze and pottery fragments. Above this deposit and beneath a large sandstone slab was a chalk block cist containing three broken leg bones. (War grave or massacre site?). [Avery questions the security of all this dating as stratigraphical distinctions were not reported. He states that the cist was probably of Roman or later date, and the elongated pit could have been part of a Neolithic ditch (if rather deep for that), or a burial pit or plague pit of some later date].
Remains/Period	Y2
County	Bedfordshire
Region	SE
National grid square	SP
X coordinate	997
Y coordinate	225
Bibliographic source	Matthews 1976, Whimster 1981, Avery 1993