Attitudes to Disposal of the Dead - Gazetteer Query Form

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Site name Rotherley, Berwick St John
Site number 1200
Burial codes 1003 1004 1009 1021 1023 1026 1028 1030 1035 1036 1042 1047 1051 1065 1071 1072 1075 1084 1092 1098 1103 1104 1107 1108 1109 1110 1111 1121 1127 1128 1143 1153 1181
100bc-AD43 A Late Iron Age and Romano-British settlement with a complex series of enclosures and other features occupied between the 1st Century BC and the 3rd Century AD. Burials were found in pits, ditches and other locations.

Fragmented bone of jaw and long bone were found in one pit. Bone fragments with burnt flint, potsherds and sheep and ox teeth were found in three deposits under wall foundations.

Pit 38 contained a skeleton (Pitt-Rivers number P-R 4) oriented NNE of an adult (?)male lying 0.27m below the surface of the edge of the pit with the head and spine outside the perimeter. It was on the right side with the legs contracted and the arms bent with the hands together just below the face. Several large flints were found lying on the body.

Pit 55 measured 3.25m x 2.77m x 2.77m deep, and contained four adults buried in its upper layers (P-R 7-10), possibly on separate occasions. P-R 7 was an adult male oriented NNE lying on the left side in the SE part of the pit, legs crouched unequally, arms dislocated after burial, hands raised together away from the head. P-R 8 was an aged male adult lying on the right side oriented NE in the W part of the pit, legs crouched unequally, arms bent up with hands in front of the face. Immediately above the pelvis were the bones of a foetus or new-born infant. P-R 9 was an adult male oriented NNE lying partly on the back and partly on the right side beneath the last, legs crouched unequally, the skull displaced by a subsequent burial. P-R 10 was an adult male lying partly on the back partly on the right side in the NW part of the pit and oriented NE, legs crouched unequally, hands together in front of the chin.

Pit 59 contained an adult male skeleton P-R 11 oriented NNE at a depth of 0.45m in a pit 1.45m deep x 1.8m across. The body was on its left side with the legs crouched unequally, right arm across the abdomen, left extended under the left leg, with large flints below and over the body.

Pit 82 contained the skeleton of an adult female P-R 12 oriented SE, buried 1.07m deep in a pit 1.95m deep x 1.8m across. The body was on its left side with legs crouched unequally, left arm under the body, right arm thrown back lightly flexed, the head awkwardly thrown back and the skull smashed by a single large flint block.

There were infant skeletons in pre-Roman pits: No 48 (2 bodies), 49 (1), and 89 (1).

The Ditch, North Quarter, was probably pre-Claudian and produced three skeletons. P-R 13 was of an elderly adult female, oriented ESE, crouched on the right side, right arm bent away from the body, set in an oblong grave 1.35m x 0.9m x c0.6m deep cut into the southern angle of the filled ditch. P-R 14 was the skeleton of a child oriented N, crouched on the right side, right forearm bent up, the left arm extended towards the thigh, with no evidence for a grave. P-R 14(?15) was the skeleton of an elderly adult male missing its lower jaw, oriented NE, lying contracted on the left side, right forearm lying in the lap, left raised to face. It was in a rectangular grave 1.1m x 0.6m x 0.75m deep, set 0.58m above the ditch bottom, and wore a bronze finger ring on the left hand.

Other burial deposits appear post-Conquest in date.
Remains/Period Y1
County Wiltshire
Region S
National grid square ST
X coordinate 949
Y coordinate 195
Bibliographic source Pitt-Rivers 1888, Hawkes 1947, Whimster 1981, Wilson 1981


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Last updated: Tues Aug 10 2004