Attitudes to Disposal of the Dead - Gazetteer Query Form

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Site name Owslebury, Bottom Pond Farm
Site number 167
Burial codes 2003 2009 2022 2023 2025 2028 2030 2035 2043 2047 2051 2065 2071 2075 2084 2093 2094 2101 2104 2107 2108 2109 2111 2121 2122 2123 2126 2128 2143 2153 2161 2164 2169 2173 2181 1003 1009 1022 1023 1025 1028 1030 1035 1043 1047 1051 1065 1075 1081 1092 1098 1104 1111 1123 1125 1128 1129 1143 1153 1161 1173 1181
8/700bc-100bc A complex Iron Age settlement site occupied until the late 2nd Century AD contained a series of La Tene III cremations, Romano-British inhumations and a single Late Iron Age inhumation (39) associated with warrior equipment.

Skeleton 39 was of an adult male c40-50, oriented N, lying extended on the back with the arms by the side. The body was accompanied by an iron sword in a wooden scabbard with leather binding on the right side of the body, an iron spear head, iron spear shaft ferrule (the position implying the spear had been broken to fit into the grave) and bronze shaft binding on the left side of the body, 2 bronze sword-suspension rings, a tinned or silvered winged belt hook (dateable to the last quarter of the 1st century BC), and a bronze butterfly shaped shield-boss of mid-to-late La Tene type nailed to a wooden shield of indeterminable shape.

It lay in a grave within a rectangular enclosure that also contained La Tene III cremations. The excavator interpreted the burial as the first on the site, the cremations belonging to the later 1st Century BC. The body was covered with a thin layer of burnt material that included a single carbonised cereal grain. Compare Whitcombe, Site 865.

At least 15 cremations were pre-Conquest and predominantly simple. At least 7 deposits of calcined bone were unenclosed. Only one burial (10) was contained in an urn; it was central with the ashes placed in a fine urn with a lid. Ten vessels made up this burial in all. The ashes of No 12 were contained in a wooden box.

Associated pottery vessels included pedestal urns, butt beakers, tazza, and gallo-belgic and romanised wares. The richest burial (41) contained 2 terra rubra platters stamped 1110111, a coarse platter, 2 jars, a fragmentary butt beaker and flagon, 3 saucers, and two small bowls, as well as an axe shaped knife, a pig's jaw, part of a stone pendant, and fragments of bronze strips with studs. Some of these burials' vessels were fragmentary or broken before deposition.

There was an Early Belgic cemetery of 8 infants, within the main settlement. Of pits uncovered, the bell shaped variety contained saucepan pot ware, one (R/M) with two infants, 3 piglets and a young pig. In an outlying trench was a Middle Iron Age child cremation with two fragmentary pots, a bronze bangle and a glass bead.
100bc-AD43 Overlap site with 8/700-100 bc.
Remains/Period Y2 Y1
County Hampshire
Region S
National grid square SU
X coordinate 525
Y coordinate 246
Bibliographic source Collis 1967, 1968, 1969, 1970, 1972, Selkirk 1971a, Whimster 1981


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Last updated: Tues Aug 10 2004