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Site name Goldington Site 2
Site number 917
Burial codes 4005 4009 4021 4024 4025 4028 4030 4031 4036 4043 4047 4051 4053 4065 4075 4081 4084 4093 4098 4104 4108 4110 4111 4128 4129 4130 4141 4152 4153 4156 4161 4181
2500bc-14/1300bc A site of five phases of construction and use, resulting in a triple ringed burial mound developed from a possible original henge. Phase 1 comprised an irregular sub-circular ditch with a narrow opening at the NW. Just inside the north and north west area of the enclosure were a number of small pits which contained deliberately placed deposits. These included hazel nuts, pottery sherds, grinding or rubbing stones and part of a polished flint axe. Three of them contained only cremated bone.

Phase 2: within the central area of the enclosure 2 crouched inhumations of children were in separate pits, a third pit associated with these being possibly for a marker post. One burial was accompanied by a spherical stone, a flint core and a small pottery vessel. A low turf mound was raised over these burials and a stake fence set to revet it.

Phase 3: A ditch was dug around the stake circle, and soon after refilled. Two pits containing burial cists made from saddle querns and rubbing stones were cut through this backfilled inner ditch. Each contained a single crouched inhumation. There was a third crouched inhumation inserted into the top fills of the inner ditch opposite the break in the stake fence which belonged to this group.

Phase 4: Three further crouched inhumations were inserted into the surface of the mound, two child burials in a single grave and a separate adult burial. A middle ditch was cut, the spoil enlarging the earlier mound, and stake reveting set around the inner lip to support the mound.

Phase 5: An inverted collared urn cremation was set in the berm between the outer and middle ditches in the NE sector.

An adjacent Bronze Age field system was firmly related by excavation evidence to the burial site.
Remains/Period Y4
County Bedfordshire
Region SE
National grid square TL
X coordinate 78
Y coordinate 502
Bibliographic source Baker and Mustoe 1988, Mustoe 1988


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Last updated: Tues Aug 10 2004