Attitudes to Disposal of the Dead - Gazetteer Query Form

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Query

Site name Upton Pyne 248b, Brampford Speke 1
Site number 231
Burial codes 4005 4009 4021 4023 4025 4028 4030 4035 4041 4047 4051 4053 4065 4075 4081 4093 4096 4104 4109 4111 4128 4143 4151 4152 4153 4156 4161 4181 4200
2500bc-14/1300bc One of 35 barrows in a low-sited cemetery either side of Exe, with two linear elements at Stevenstone Farm and Bramble Lane. Turf and topsoil had been stripped from the base which was levelled accurately. There was a clay outer capping over a mixture of clay and sand. No stake holes were traceable. The turf mound beneath covered the central sand core of the barrow. There were nine deposits at different levels in the sand core:

1 A primary deposit at the centre base of the core of a Wessex biconical urn inverted under a separate pile of sand, containing cremated bone of a very young infant and oak charcoal.

2 2.4m to the west a smaller circular cist sunk into a pit, the wall slabs projecting to support 5 piled cover slabs. These rested on an inverted collared urn containing soft dark earth, vegetable matter and oak charcoal.

3 A much smaller earlier Trevisker style urn inverted just to the east of the cist, containing soft dark earth, calcined bone, and oak charcoal.

4 Just to the east of 3 was a large Wessex biconical urn with earlier Trevisker features, inverted, covering sherds and containing soft dark earth, oak charcoal (radiocarbon dated as BM-402) and vegetable matter.

5 An unaccompanied cremation in a depression in the subsoil to the south east of 4, oval shaped, oriented EW, and the lowest layer of which contained large pieces of charcoal, the upper level containing black earth mixed with calcined (?) infant bone and some oak charcoal. [Groups 2-5 appeared to be a single deposit].

6 A second unaccompanied cremation 7.5cm above the old ground surface, in a shallow scoop in the sand core made in the course of core building. The deposit comprised dark earth, oak charcoal, and a few tiny pieces of unidentifiable calcined bone
.
7-9 Three scattered oak charcoal deposits, higher than 1-6. No signs of stratification, so done during building.

10 Three deposits of plasticine like purple red clay at the east side on the old ground surface, with some oak charcoal lumps scattered on or over two. Other finds included flints, a stone hone in the barrow mound, and 1 large and 6 small quartz pebbles from the barrow floor.

RC: from charcoal under biconical urn 4, deposit 4 BM-402 1386 +/- 53
Remains/Period Y4
County Devon
Region SW
National grid square SX
X coordinate 914
Y coordinate 990
Bibliographic source Pollard 1969, Fox 1969


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Last updated: Tues Aug 10 2004