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 Cock Hill Enclosure, Patching

Site number 1086

Burial codes 3003 3004 3009 3021 3023 3025 3026 3028 3030 3035 3036 3043 3047 3051 3065 3075 3085 3092 3098 3104 3108 3109 3110 3111 3127 3128 3142 3143 3151 3153 3162 3181

14/1300bc-8/700bc An earthwork c30m across comprising an encircling bank and causewayed ditch of penannular shape with a gap c21m wide at the south east opposite a 3m gap in the outer bank. The construction appears to have been a farm enclosure with three huts, 2 semi-circular wooden structures and a pond. Late Bronze Age pottery, bone, cockle shells, charcoal and pot boilers occurred in all levels of the bank down to the old turf line. Post holes had been cut at c2.1m intervals beneath the bank on the inner side of its mid-line, and these contained charred wood and Late Bronze Age pot sherds. Great quantities of sherds from plain bucket shaped Deverel-Rimbury pots were scattered all over the site and in the main silt of the ditch. Other vessels were barrel shaped, and others fitted with applied lugs.

The Ditch. In the ditch at the north east end, the filling was a uniform unstratified type containing burnt flint flakes, animal bone (ox, sheep, horse, red deer, bos longifrons), charcoal, worn Middle Bronze Age (food vessel type) sherds, much Late Bronze Age pottery, fragments of quern, and a terminal human phalanx. A post had been driven through the filling almost to the bottom. In the north west sector of the ditch the skeleton of a human foetus was found in association with Late Bronze Age pottery near the bottom of the main silt; a skull and other bones of bos longifrons lay nearby.

The enclosure interior. Just inside the enclosure entrance on the north side was a small curved fence or lean-to A.1 with at the centre of the concavity a cremation C.III comprising the remains of at least one adult and a child apparently wrapped in a bag or cloth, buried in a pear shaped pit with an incomplete broken pot of Late Bronze Age date at the base of a marker post, as identified by the charred oak timber between packing flints driven in beside the cremation. To the west of a central depression in the interior was a semi-circular walled enclosure A.III with a cremation C.II comprising part of the remains of an adult and an infant at the foot of a marker post driven in beside it associated with Late Bronze Age pottery. In Hut I in the enclosure was a pit 0.5m in diameter x 0.3m deep containing the cremated remains C.I of parts of at least three individuals, a young adult, a child less than 12 and an infant, with quantities of oak charcoal and a Late Bronze Age sherd. There was a foetal skeleton in the pond which was cut c10m in diameter x 0.9m deep in the southern part of the enclosure. The pond contained pottery from the Late Bronze Age, Early Iron Age and the Roman period. The excavator assumed the foetus to have been placed there late in the occupation of the site or at the drying up of the pond.

Remains/Period Y3

County Sussex

Region SE

National grid square TQ

X coordinate 92

Y coordinate 94

Bibliographic source Curwen and Curwen 1922, Ratcliffe-Densham and Ratcliffe-Densham 1961

Query

Site name	Cock Hill Enclosure, Patching
Site number	1086
Burial codes	3003 3004 3009 3021 3023 3025 3026 3028 3030 3035 3036 3043 3047 3051 3065 3075 3085 3092 3098 3104 3108 3109 3110 3111 3127 3128 3142 3143 3151 3153 3162 3181
14/1300bc-8/700bc	An earthwork c30m across comprising an encircling bank and causewayed ditch of penannular shape with a gap c21m wide at the south east opposite a 3m gap in the outer bank. The construction appears to have been a farm enclosure with three huts, 2 semi-circular wooden structures and a pond. Late Bronze Age pottery, bone, cockle shells, charcoal and pot boilers occurred in all levels of the bank down to the old turf line. Post holes had been cut at c2.1m intervals beneath the bank on the inner side of its mid-line, and these contained charred wood and Late Bronze Age pot sherds. Great quantities of sherds from plain bucket shaped Deverel-Rimbury pots were scattered all over the site and in the main silt of the ditch. Other vessels were barrel shaped, and others fitted with applied lugs. The Ditch. In the ditch at the north east end, the filling was a uniform unstratified type containing burnt flint flakes, animal bone (ox, sheep, horse, red deer, bos longifrons), charcoal, worn Middle Bronze Age (food vessel type) sherds, much Late Bronze Age pottery, fragments of quern, and a terminal human phalanx. A post had been driven through the filling almost to the bottom. In the north west sector of the ditch the skeleton of a human foetus was found in association with Late Bronze Age pottery near the bottom of the main silt; a skull and other bones of bos longifrons lay nearby. The enclosure interior. Just inside the enclosure entrance on the north side was a small curved fence or lean-to A.1 with at the centre of the concavity a cremation C.III comprising the remains of at least one adult and a child apparently wrapped in a bag or cloth, buried in a pear shaped pit with an incomplete broken pot of Late Bronze Age date at the base of a marker post, as identified by the charred oak timber between packing flints driven in beside the cremation. To the west of a central depression in the interior was a semi-circular walled enclosure A.III with a cremation C.II comprising part of the remains of an adult and an infant at the foot of a marker post driven in beside it associated with Late Bronze Age pottery. In Hut I in the enclosure was a pit 0.5m in diameter x 0.3m deep containing the cremated remains C.I of parts of at least three individuals, a young adult, a child less than 12 and an infant, with quantities of oak charcoal and a Late Bronze Age sherd. There was a foetal skeleton in the pond which was cut c10m in diameter x 0.9m deep in the southern part of the enclosure. The pond contained pottery from the Late Bronze Age, Early Iron Age and the Roman period. The excavator assumed the foetus to have been placed there late in the occupation of the site or at the drying up of the pond.
Remains/Period	Y3
County	Sussex
Region	SE
National grid square	TQ
X coordinate	92
Y coordinate	94
Bibliographic source	Curwen and Curwen 1922, Ratcliffe-Densham and Ratcliffe-Densham 1961