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 Porth Cressa, Hugh Town, St Mary's

Site number 156

Burial codes 1002 1005 1022 1023 1026 1028 1030 1031 1042 1046 1051 1065 1071 1084 1091 1096 1103 1104 1111 1121 1123 1128 1129 1143 1153 1156 1181

100bc-AD43 A cemetery of 10 cists with one boulder covered grave of allied form spaced equidistantly in two lines oriented NS. The cists were built in pits, of selected granite blocks and slabs, then covered with soil. The interstices of sides and covers were lined with sandy yellow clay. The cists varied in shape, being oval, rectangular and square, and the two rectangular examples were of larger and more massive construction. The inhumations judging from a relatively well-preserved example (No 7) were contracted and laid on right side, head to N. That from No 6 was probably of an adult female and was laid in an oval burial area defined by a ring of small granite stones around a patch of thick clay, and that from No 7 had adult male characteristics. Other skeletal remains were too scant and fragmentary for examination.

The grave goods included a series of Roman brooches probably of the 1st century AD, in three cases deposited in their cists in pairs perhaps as clothes fasteners (those in No 10 being more ornate), once deposited singly, twice accompanied by a pot, and in one further case (No 5) accompanied by a pot and an oblate bluish-green globular glass bead. The brooches have no close parallels in Britain so precise dating is hard. One of the pots was damaged before being deposited. One pot was of general form (from No 5) with Iron Age C affinities, and another of Iron Age B type (from No 2). Three graves had no goods. The skeletal remains were ill preserved because of the soil acid, and had been laid on a thin layer of compact yellow-white clay.

The dating suggests the 1st Century AD, one brooch being later. The two pots were of Late Iron Age/Early Roman period.

Remains/Period Y1

County Scilly

Region SW

National grid square SV

X coordinate 902

Y coordinate 105

Bibliographic source Ashbee 1950, 1954a, 1974, Whimster 1981

Query

Site name	Porth Cressa, Hugh Town, St Mary's
Site number	156
Burial codes	1002 1005 1022 1023 1026 1028 1030 1031 1042 1046 1051 1065 1071 1084 1091 1096 1103 1104 1111 1121 1123 1128 1129 1143 1153 1156 1181
100bc-AD43	A cemetery of 10 cists with one boulder covered grave of allied form spaced equidistantly in two lines oriented NS. The cists were built in pits, of selected granite blocks and slabs, then covered with soil. The interstices of sides and covers were lined with sandy yellow clay. The cists varied in shape, being oval, rectangular and square, and the two rectangular examples were of larger and more massive construction. The inhumations judging from a relatively well-preserved example (No 7) were contracted and laid on right side, head to N. That from No 6 was probably of an adult female and was laid in an oval burial area defined by a ring of small granite stones around a patch of thick clay, and that from No 7 had adult male characteristics. Other skeletal remains were too scant and fragmentary for examination. The grave goods included a series of Roman brooches probably of the 1st century AD, in three cases deposited in their cists in pairs perhaps as clothes fasteners (those in No 10 being more ornate), once deposited singly, twice accompanied by a pot, and in one further case (No 5) accompanied by a pot and an oblate bluish-green globular glass bead. The brooches have no close parallels in Britain so precise dating is hard. One of the pots was damaged before being deposited. One pot was of general form (from No 5) with Iron Age C affinities, and another of Iron Age B type (from No 2). Three graves had no goods. The skeletal remains were ill preserved because of the soil acid, and had been laid on a thin layer of compact yellow-white clay. The dating suggests the 1st Century AD, one brooch being later. The two pots were of Late Iron Age/Early Roman period.
Remains/Period	Y1
County	Scilly
Region	SW
National grid square	SV
X coordinate	902
Y coordinate	105
Bibliographic source	Ashbee 1950, 1954a, 1974, Whimster 1981