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 Cassington 5

Site number 1027

Burial codes 4005 4009 4021 4023 4025 4028 4030 4035 4043 4047 4051 4053 4065 4071 4084 4092 4098 4101 4104 4107 4108 4109 4110 4122 4124 4128 4141 4151 4152 4153 4161 4167 4181

2500bc-14/1300bc A bowl barrow in its final form with an initial ditch and inner bank which enclosed 3.9m SE of the centre a roughly oval grave pit 1.5m x 1.2m x 1.1m deep, containing at the bottom the inhumation of an adult male of middle age. The body was crouched on its right side, head to NW, accompanied by a flint scraper by the right knee-cap. Above and around the body were minute fragments of black carbonised vegetable matter which extended in a thin layer of soil up the sides of the pit for 0.45m. The pit fill was clean gravel, including lumps of gravel conglomerate. In the pit fill was the interment of a child c5, crouched, on its left side, head to NW, against the north east wall of the grave and 0.55m from the grave floor. There were no grave goods.

Over the grave filling a small wooden mortuary hut of possible beehive shape was erected. This comprised 11-12 oak stakes set within the pit edge in a circle, slanting inwards and with a central stake.

At the same time a foetus and two infants were cremated in situ and buried close by in three pits dug in the gravel in a straight line ENE/WS. Pit I was 0.3m in diameter x 18cm deep and contained cremated bones in a compact mass mixed with a little wood ash which represented the complete cremation of a child c5. Pit II was 0.3m in diameter x 22cm deep, and contained an upright cinerary urn of debased collared type with food vessel characteristics surrounded by black wood ash, holding the cremated bones of an infant c6 months or less, without grave goods. The bones were mixed with ash, and the upper fill of the pit was burnt soil. Pit III was 0.3m in diameter x 0.5m deep, mostly filled with charred fragments of wood (hawthorn) mixed with brown soil. A few minute fragments of cremated foetal bone were among the wood at the bottom of the pit.

To the north of these pits and parallel was a spead of wood ash in three sections c0.3m apart. On the surface of the eastern ash spread an incomplete collection of charred bones of an adult were loosely deposited, with some further scattered fragments diffused about, among which was a leaf shaped arrow head, the broken off cutting edge of a flint knife, and a worked flint flake. A flint scraper was close to the division of the two western ash spreads. The burials were contemporary.

There was a pit 6.6m west of the centre of the barrow, 1.2m x 0.6m x 25cm deep, with rounded ends, a filling of fine black soil, containing 3 unworked flints at the east end.

The wooden hut was burnt and the whole set of burials was then according to the stratigraphy covered by a mound of scraped up topsoil which included flint and a Beaker pot sherd, capped after an interval by gravel dug from a second and larger encircling ditch.

Remains/Period Y4

County Oxfordshire

Region SE

National grid square SP

X coordinate 450

Y coordinate 100

Bibliographic source Atkinson 1947

Query

Site name	Cassington 5
Site number	1027
Burial codes	4005 4009 4021 4023 4025 4028 4030 4035 4043 4047 4051 4053 4065 4071 4084 4092 4098 4101 4104 4107 4108 4109 4110 4122 4124 4128 4141 4151 4152 4153 4161 4167 4181
2500bc-14/1300bc	A bowl barrow in its final form with an initial ditch and inner bank which enclosed 3.9m SE of the centre a roughly oval grave pit 1.5m x 1.2m x 1.1m deep, containing at the bottom the inhumation of an adult male of middle age. The body was crouched on its right side, head to NW, accompanied by a flint scraper by the right knee-cap. Above and around the body were minute fragments of black carbonised vegetable matter which extended in a thin layer of soil up the sides of the pit for 0.45m. The pit fill was clean gravel, including lumps of gravel conglomerate. In the pit fill was the interment of a child c5, crouched, on its left side, head to NW, against the north east wall of the grave and 0.55m from the grave floor. There were no grave goods. Over the grave filling a small wooden mortuary hut of possible beehive shape was erected. This comprised 11-12 oak stakes set within the pit edge in a circle, slanting inwards and with a central stake. At the same time a foetus and two infants were cremated in situ and buried close by in three pits dug in the gravel in a straight line ENE/WS. Pit I was 0.3m in diameter x 18cm deep and contained cremated bones in a compact mass mixed with a little wood ash which represented the complete cremation of a child c5. Pit II was 0.3m in diameter x 22cm deep, and contained an upright cinerary urn of debased collared type with food vessel characteristics surrounded by black wood ash, holding the cremated bones of an infant c6 months or less, without grave goods. The bones were mixed with ash, and the upper fill of the pit was burnt soil. Pit III was 0.3m in diameter x 0.5m deep, mostly filled with charred fragments of wood (hawthorn) mixed with brown soil. A few minute fragments of cremated foetal bone were among the wood at the bottom of the pit. To the north of these pits and parallel was a spead of wood ash in three sections c0.3m apart. On the surface of the eastern ash spread an incomplete collection of charred bones of an adult were loosely deposited, with some further scattered fragments diffused about, among which was a leaf shaped arrow head, the broken off cutting edge of a flint knife, and a worked flint flake. A flint scraper was close to the division of the two western ash spreads. The burials were contemporary. There was a pit 6.6m west of the centre of the barrow, 1.2m x 0.6m x 25cm deep, with rounded ends, a filling of fine black soil, containing 3 unworked flints at the east end. The wooden hut was burnt and the whole set of burials was then according to the stratigraphy covered by a mound of scraped up topsoil which included flint and a Beaker pot sherd, capped after an interval by gravel dug from a second and larger encircling ditch.
Remains/Period	Y4
County	Oxfordshire
Region	SE
National grid square	SP
X coordinate	450
Y coordinate	100
Bibliographic source	Atkinson 1947