Attitudes to Disposal of the Dead - Gazetteer Query Form

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Site name Tregiffian, St Buryan
Site number 7
Burial codes 5001 5005 5007 5022 5023 5025 5028 5029 5033 5037 5041 5048 5051 5065 5075 5093 5104 5111 5112 5128 5143 5152 5155 5160 5181 4002 4005 4022 4023 4025 4028 4030 4033 4037 4041 4048 4051 4065 4075 4093 4104 4111 4128 4143 4152 4153 4155 4161 4181 4200
3500bc - 2500bc Turf barrow entrance grave oriented S. The old land surface produced 'traces of Neolithic occupation' by way of a Beaker sherd and Neolithic potsherds. The chamber was 4.2m x 1.2m and filled with clean earth. A cup-marked decorated orthostat at the east side supported the outer capstone, and another cupmarked stone was lying flat in the south east quadrant. Two more cupmarked stones were found loose. On the floor burnt into the clay was a stratum of adult incinerated and comminuted bone and ash. There were indications of great heat, suggesting a furnace cremation. [Is this of period 2500-14/1300 bc built on Late Neolithic occupation site?].

In the Borlase account, over the cover stone was a great quantity of ashes and splintered bone, and a flint scraper. Under the stone was a very considerable quantity of bone splinters, and under a small flat stone at the south end of the cover stone was a pit lined with sand and shell from Porthcurnow Cove 3-4 miles away, and containing cremated bone and ashes. No pottery was found.
2500bc-14/1300bc Two pits dug into the floor of the 4.2m x 1.2 chamber contained Early Bronze Age collared food urns buried with charcoal and burnt bone.

RC: charcoal from collared urn BM-935 1539 +/- 59
Remains/Period Y5 Y4
County Cornwall
Region SW
National grid square SW
X coordinate 430
Y coordinate 244
Bibliographic source Borlase 1872, Lukis 1885, Hencken 1932, Dudley 1968a, ApSimon 1973, Mercer 1986


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Last updated: Tues Aug 10 2004