Attitudes to Disposal of the Dead - Gazetteer Query Form

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Site name Milborne 14, The Deverel Barrow
Site number 727
Burial codes 3005 3009 3021 3023 3025 3028 3029 3035 3041 3048 3051 3053 3065 3075 3081 3083 3092 3094 3104 3111 3128 3143 3152 3153 3159 3161 3173 3181
14/1300bc-8/700bc A bowl barrow with on the west side a close-set flint platform covering three upright bucket urns protected by flints and all touching. On the south side was a semi-circular cemetery of cremation burials. 17 urns were in pits dug in the natural chalk and covered with a slab (sometimes 2 or 3), and 4 urns stood upright on the barrow floor with a flint covering. Under one stone were the teeth of sheep or deer.

In the interior of the semi-circle there were also 5 uncovered pits dug in the chalk and containing burnt human bone, and 4 heaps of cremated bone and ash without protective covering on the barrow floor. All the urns bar one were upright, and all were barrel, bucket or globular. Some urns had been repaired. Black ashes thickly surrounded them all. The compact sandstone slabs were imported and not of the district, one being of considerable size requiring much effort to move.

Ten pit coverstones were arranged in a southern semicircle, and the greater assemblage was on the east side of the barrow. On the north side close to a stone were two small cups, in one the bones of a (?)bird, in the other a rich black mould, both appearing to have been burnt in the pyre.

Some (?)intrusive inhumations oriented E and W were found in the upper layers of the barrow.
Remains/Period Y3
County Dorset
Region S
National grid square SY
X coordinate 820
Y coordinate 990
Bibliographic source Miles 1826, Warne 1866, Grinsell 1959


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Last updated: Tues Aug 10 2004