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Site name Burnt Common
Site number 259
Burial codes 4005 4021 4023 4025 4028 4030 4035 4051 4053 4065 4129 4130 4153 4156 4184
2500bc-14/1300bc A Beaker burial in a flint ring, probably a crouched inhumation in a sunken stone lined grave pit, the sides of which were lined with flints and chert. The original grave covering and the contents were disturbed. There were sherds of long necked bi-cordoned Beaker of a late type, 'final Southern British (S4)' c1600-1500BC. There was no human skeletal material, nor gravegoods except 2 fossil sea urchins. There was much oak carbon in the fill. The pit was in the centre of a ring of small and medium flints 1.5m wide at the base and probably 0.9-1.2m high originally.

Inside the ring were two eccentric pits containing small pieces of oak carbon of uncertain burial or ritual use. There was a large oval area of burnt ground inside the ring on the south west side, 4.2m x 3m, oriented NE, parallel to the grave pit. It had experienced very intense heat as the clay soil was burnt to 15cm deep. The burnt area continued under the flint wall. No stake holes were discovered. The wall was built after the area had cooled, and within a relatively short period. Two other fossil sea urchins were found on the old ground surface under the flint wall, and in ploughsoil. There was no evidence for a mound or a ditch on the site.
Remains/Period N4
County Devon
Region SW
National grid square SY
X coordinate 191
Y coordinate 895
Bibliographic source Pollard 1967


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