Attitudes to Disposal of the Dead - Gazetteer Query Form

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Site name Brimpsfield I, West Tump
Site number 41
Burial codes 5005 5009 5021 5023 5025 5027 5030 5032 5036 5042 5047 5051 5053 5065 5071 5072 5073 5074 5084 5093 5094 5103 5105 5107 5108 5109 5111 5124 5125 5127 5143 5152 5155 5159 5181
3500bc - 2500bc Long earthen barrow oriented ESE, with false horned entrance, surrounded by a low retaining wall of slate. The mound was of trapezoidal plan, of pitched limestone slabs defined by a drystone kerb inturned at the NNE to form a cuspate forecourt. A central stone wall runs through the barrow. A chamber was set at right angles to the south west side c24m from entrance. This chamber was 'sunk into the ground'.

Two skeletons were found outside the wall at the south east end between the horns: a female c18 contracted, head to SW, and two flint flakes; an old male contracted, head to N. A young person was just inside the south west wall, contracted, head to NW, on stone slabs. Further south were three skeletons of 2 adults (one head to S, one to N) and a child c6 head to E, 2 just inside and one outside the south west wall, possibly later insertions.

In the entrance of the walled and beehive roofed chamber were 2 Neolithic A pottery fragments, human skeletal material in great disorder, and animal bone and flint. Eight further incomplete skeletons were in the passage. The passage contained among the human bones animal bone of deer and sheep, and a perfect leaf-shaped arrowhead. The main chamber contained a mixture of human skeletal material and rubble, but 5-6 complete skeletons. The end of the chamber was semicircular, the floor being paved with five flat stones on which was a contracted sitting skeleton (head to NW) and a baby, with the former's femora deliberately rearranged.

There were about 21 burials in the passage and chamber in all, and several were accompanied by animal bone.
Remains/Period Y5
County Gloucestershire
Region SW
National grid square SO
X coordinate 911
Y coordinate 132
Bibliographic source Witts 1881, O'Neil and Grinsell 1960, Kinnes 1992


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Last updated: Tues Aug 10 2004