Attitudes to Disposal of the Dead - Gazetteer Query Form

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Site name Trevelgue Head
Site number 183
Burial codes 4005 4009 4021 4023 4025 4027 4029 4034 4043 4047 4051 4053 4065 4075 4084 4091 4098 4104 4111 4123 4128 4143 4152 4156 4181
2500bc-14/1300bc A pair of barrows connected by a low semicircular bank of earth. The western barrow held a large stone cist oriented NW/SE, paved, and covered by a large spar. The excavations uncovered a considerable amount of burnt earth and blackened beach stones, which formed the barrow cairn. This may imply the lighting of fires above the cairn after the burial. The cist was set into the old ground surface and contained an inhumation, head to NW. The floor appeared to have originally been paved with slate slabs, and skull fragments were found below these.

The eastern barrow mound was formed by a stone capping over a stratum of hard clay from a local valley, which in turn covered another stone layer. A large stone from the beach below covered the cist which was set into the old ground surface, oriented NW/SE and contained a crouched inhumation on its left side, arms stretched out to the knees, head to NE. By where the hands would have been was a small perforated axe-hammer of stone. In the clay layer of the mound was a secondary cremation accompanied by a single flint chip. It was unprotected and immediately over the centre of the large cist coverstone.
Remains/Period Y4
County Cornwall
Region SW
National grid square SW
X coordinate 825
Y coordinate 630
Bibliographic source Borlase 1872, 1873, Hencken 1932


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Last updated: Tues Aug 10 2004