Attitudes to Disposal of the Dead - Gazetteer Query Form

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Site name Pentre Farm, Pontardulais
Site number 396
Burial codes 4002 4005 4022 4023 4025 4028 4030 4031 4041 4045 4051 4065 4075 4084 4092 4098 4108 4113 4128 4143 4152 4153 4181 4200
2500bc-14/1300bc An earth mound on top of which was laid a penannular ring of stones, the mouth to the north. A stone cap covered the platform. There was no central feature on the old ground surface, but a stone filled pit lay 0.3m within the south west edge of the mound, and there were two small burnt areas. Probably the area was deturfed before the mound was raised. Flints, some Bronze Age sherds, and a spindle whorl of mudstone were recovered from the platform surface within the penannular ring.

There were three cremations: No 1 was of a child, a small deposit covered by a slab incorporated into the west segment of the penannular ring, and on heavily burnt soil underlying the stones of the ring. Some more burnt bone was on the slab cover, possibly scattered separately. No 2 cremation was also of a child, and was contained in a boat shaped pit 0.7m x 0.28m x 0.23m deep cut into the platform 2m north west of the penannular ring. The bone was packed into a mass of oak charcoal giving the earlier radiocarbon date. It was deposited before the capping was laid down. Cremation No 3 was also of a child, towards the edge of the cairn cap, in a pit 0.6m x 0.4m x 0.25m deep, 0.8m east of the penannular ring. It comprised mostly bone mixed with a few flecks of charcoal. The small deposits in cremations 1-3 might suggest token burials.

RC: from pits dug into mound HAR-958 1520 +/- 70
8/700bc-100bc A large pit was found just beyond the north edge of the mound, 2.5m x 1.5m x 0.6m deep, oriented EW. It was heavily burnt, and contained three layers of charcoal (radiocarbon dated below). Some cremated human skeletal material was found in the upper charcoal layer. The pit's use was hard to guess.

RC: from fire pit HAR-959 450 ad +/- 70 [now believed to be post-Roman cooking hearth]
Remains/Period Y4 Y2
County West Glamorgan
Region SW
National grid square SN
X coordinate 591
Y coordinate 26
Bibliographic source Ward 1975, 1978


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Last updated: Tues Aug 10 2004