Attitudes to Disposal of the Dead - Gazetteer Query Form

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Site name Dorchester-on-Thames, Site VI
Site number 1044
Burial codes 5002 5005 5021 5023 5025 5028 5030 5031 5036 5041 5047 5051 5053 5065 5075 5084 5093 5098 5104 5108 5110 5111 5128 5129 5143 5151 5153 5181
3500bc - 2500bc A causewayed cremation cemetery c51m WNW of Dorchester V (Site 1043), with a causewayed ditch originally of 11 segments with a single entrance causeway at the north. Each segment had a hole in the floor, and one segment had a double hole, all of varying sizes and none showing traces of having held posts. There was an outer bank, and within the limits of the ditch and in the central area were 49 deposits of cremated bones, one (No 11 in the ditch) accompanied by a flint fabricator, a petit tranchet derivative arrow head and three unworked burnt flint flakes. Peterborough ware sherds were found in the ditch but not in primary silts. The middle layer in the ditch was greasy black soil as in the ditches at Dorchester IV and V.

The 49 cremation deposits represented 55 individuals of whom at least 11 were young persons. 13 were in the central area (9 in shallow pits and 4 in topsoil), 33 in the south, south east and south west ditch filling (most in the filling but a few in shallow pits), and 3 just outside the ditch (2 on the lip, 1 in topsoil). Most were in a compact mass, one or two scattered possibly by cultivation disturbance.

[Order suggested by Whittle et al 1992: Dorchester Site VIII, 1, III, XI, II, I, IV, V, VI, 2, 3, XIV, XII, XIII, 4, VII, IX].
Remains/Period Y5
County Oxfordshire
Region SE
National grid square SU
X coordinate 570
Y coordinate 958
Bibliographic source Atkinson 1951a, Atkinson, Piggott and Sanders 1951, Kinnes 1979, Gibson 1992b


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Last updated: Tues Aug 10 2004