Attitudes to Disposal of the Dead - Gazetteer Query Form

Background to the Gazetteer | Table of Contents


Query

Site name Nutbane
Site number 68
Burial codes 5005 5009 5021 5024 5025 5028 5029 5032 5042 5044 5046 5051 5052 5053 5071 5072 5085 5092 5106 5107 5108 5127 5141 5142 5152 5154 5159 5167 5181
3500bc - 2500bc A trapezoidal wide bermed long barrow, oriented E. There was Windmill Hill pottery in the primary silt of the ditch, and a biconical Beaker sherd in the secondary slow silting.

Beneath the mound at the east end of the barrow were the foundation trenches of a forecourt enclosure in front and to the east of a post and log mortuary enclosure. Small irregular ditches surrounded the four crouched articulated burials in the mortuary enclosure. There were 2 males c35 and c40 oriented EW heads to east, a child c12-13 oriented SN head to west. The adults lay on their left sides, the child on its right.The skull of one male faced backwards, and the right forearm of the other was disarticulated and a patella was inside its skull. The three were set on a layer of decayed wood. Further west was a third male c30-40 oriented SN on its right side. Beneath it was a post hole possibly removed to accommodate the body. All bodies were covered by a thick layer of soil covered by a chalk block cairn. Soil covered the inside of the fenced enclosure, overlying the cairn, then an oak brushwood scattering was laid upon it, covered in turn by fine chalk and soil mixed.

Some Windmill Hill sherds were found in the soil over the bodies, and an antler tine fragment in the chalk and soil mixture. Fragments of a Windmill Hill bowl and cup were lying on the old ground surface just outside the north west corner of the enclosure. The forecourt enclosure was of 2 phases, the first contemporaneous with the banked mortuary enclosure containing the first three burials. The second was on a more massive scale with log walls and two side colonnades, and inner partition walls: it was probably contemporaneous with the replacement of the banked mortuary enclosure with a fenced enclosure. Burial of the third male was made in the fenced enclosure. After the chalk block cairn was built the mortuary enclosure entrance was blocked.

The covering of the enclosure - soil, fine chalk and soil, and chalk blocks - came from the ditches as they were dug. The forecourt was set alight and while the posts were still burning coarse chalk from the ditch excavations was thrown into it. The mound was then completed from the ditch upcast to the west, as it came out of the excavation.

RC: from Phase 2 burning BM-49 2730 +/-150
Remains/Period Y5
County Hampshire
Region S
National grid square SU
X coordinate 330
Y coordinate 495
Bibliographic source Morgan and Ashbee 1958, Morgan 1959


Query

© Internet Archaeology/Author(s)
Last updated: Tues Aug 10 2004