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Site name Fargo Plantation, Amesbury
Site number 405
Burial codes 4005 4009 4021 4023 4025 4028 4030 4031 4034 4043 4047 4048 4051 4053 4065 4075 4084 4093 4098 4104 4108 4111 4128 4129 4143 4153 4181
2500bc-14/1300bc A small sub-oval mini henge enclosure c7.5m in diameter, with the NNE causeway wider than the SSW causeway. There was a possible outer bank and a roughly central burial pit A. The ditches had steep sides and nearly 0.9m wide flat bottoms. The central pit was rectangular with rounded corners and vertical sides 1.6m x 1.1m x 0.9m deep, and contained one inhumation and three cremations.

Inhumation A1 was of a young person and only the articulated upper part was in situ: skull, arm and leg bones, pelvis, lumbar vertebrae, feet and one hand were all missing, but not seemingly through post burial disturbance. A Beaker accompanied the remains. A cremation A2 comprising a pile of pile of burnt earth, charcoal, and a few well burnt bones was placed in a centrally cut shallow oval hole in the grave base. A base of a food vessel was probably associated with this interment. Cremation A3 was a pile of burnt human bones unmixed with charcoal or earth inserted into a shallow hole in the grave base, 2.5cm deep and 0.3m in diameter, the whole of the body being represented. Cremation A4 was a secondary deposit, cut into the north west corner of the central grave, 10cm deep into the base. It comprised a few burnt bones, and a small quantity of charcoal.

The grave had been lined with turf at the sides. Inhumation A1 was covered with 15cm of chalk rubble, and the same layer also covered cremations A2 and A3. In the base of the ditch were 9 antler fragments, and a Neolithic B/Peterborough rim fragment. A secondary interment to the south west of the central grave pit comprised an armless cremation in a circular pit. A circular hole between the central pit and the SSW entrance 0.3m across and 0.6m deep was cleanly cut, but contained only earth. A similar wider but shallower hole was just 10cm to the north of the central pit. 18 flint flakes and 4 scraps were found during the excavations.
Remains/Period Y4
County Wiltshire
Region S
National grid square SU
X coordinate 112
Y coordinate 428
Bibliographic source Stone 1939, Harding and Lee 1987


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Last updated: Tues Aug 10 2004