Attitudes to Disposal of the Dead - Gazetteer Query Form

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Note that there may be a few slight discrepancies between counts given in the text and the returned results in the gazetteer. This is a result of corrections and amendments (not updates) made to the gazetteer since the research was published in BAR. This does not materially affect the picture presented but does add more detail.

Site name Maumbury Rings, Dorchester

Site number 726

Burial codes 4005 4009 4021 4023 4025 4028 4030 4032 4036 4037 4043 4045 4051 4053 4065 4075 4084 4092 4098 4104 4111 4125 4127 4128 4143 4166 4181 4200

2500bc-14/1300bc A henge comprising a sub-circular earthwork enclosure defined by a ditch and outer bank broken only by a single entrance at the north east. The ditch comprised up to 45 near vertical shafts of average depth 10.4m and of diameters from 3.7m maximum reducing to a minimum of 0.61m at the base. The shafts were filled largely with chalk rubble but also contained flint, animal and human bones, antler, pottery and carved chalk (chalk balls and phalli). There was evidence for pre-henge pits and gullies.

There was one grooved ware sherd in the lowest fill of one shaft; flints of Late Neolithic type; one Beaker rim in a secondary position from Roman make-up. Flints, human bones and pieces of unused antler tended to be in the higher levels of the fill; antler tools, animal bone (especially pig), chalk objects and potsherds seem to have been more evenly distributed. In four cases red deer skulls were unassociated deposits (all red deer bone was antler or cranial in the deposits). Six fragments of human skull were found in the upper levels of the shafts, and three more fragments and a piece of tibia probably come from a similar context; two skull fragments came from the bank - these were charred.

RC: from bottom of shaft 1 BM-2282N 2020 +/- 70, from highest Neolithic level in shaft 3 BM-2281R 1990 +/- 130, both animal bone

Remains/Period Y4

County Dorset

Region S

National grid square SY

X coordinate 690

Y coordinate 899

Bibliographic source Gray 1908b, 1909, 1910, 1913b, 1914, Bradley 1975, 1988a, Bradley and Thomas 1984, Harding and Lee 1987

Query

Site name	Maumbury Rings, Dorchester
Site number	726
Burial codes	4005 4009 4021 4023 4025 4028 4030 4032 4036 4037 4043 4045 4051 4053 4065 4075 4084 4092 4098 4104 4111 4125 4127 4128 4143 4166 4181 4200
2500bc-14/1300bc	A henge comprising a sub-circular earthwork enclosure defined by a ditch and outer bank broken only by a single entrance at the north east. The ditch comprised up to 45 near vertical shafts of average depth 10.4m and of diameters from 3.7m maximum reducing to a minimum of 0.61m at the base. The shafts were filled largely with chalk rubble but also contained flint, animal and human bones, antler, pottery and carved chalk (chalk balls and phalli). There was evidence for pre-henge pits and gullies. There was one grooved ware sherd in the lowest fill of one shaft; flints of Late Neolithic type; one Beaker rim in a secondary position from Roman make-up. Flints, human bones and pieces of unused antler tended to be in the higher levels of the fill; antler tools, animal bone (especially pig), chalk objects and potsherds seem to have been more evenly distributed. In four cases red deer skulls were unassociated deposits (all red deer bone was antler or cranial in the deposits). Six fragments of human skull were found in the upper levels of the shafts, and three more fragments and a piece of tibia probably come from a similar context; two skull fragments came from the bank - these were charred. RC: from bottom of shaft 1 BM-2282N 2020 +/- 70, from highest Neolithic level in shaft 3 BM-2281R 1990 +/- 130, both animal bone
Remains/Period	Y4
County	Dorset
Region	S
National grid square	SY
X coordinate	690
Y coordinate	899
Bibliographic source	Gray 1908b, 1909, 1910, 1913b, 1914, Bradley 1975, 1988a, Bradley and Thomas 1984, Harding and Lee 1987