Attitudes to Disposal of the Dead - Gazetteer Query Form

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Site name Watch Hill, St Stephen-in-Brannel
Site number 227
Burial codes 4002 4005 4021 4024 4025 4027 4029 4031 4042 4046 4051 4053 4065 4072 4084 4091 4104 4111 4128 4143 4152 4153 4157 4181 4200
2500bc-14/1300bc A round barrow and ditch with two coffin inhumations, one above the other. The main cairn ring lay eccentrically within the ditch, to the south on the NS axis, and was composed of granite and some quartz blocks, faced on the outer edge, but interrupted at the north by a blocked entrance, flanked by two orthostats. Two arcs of an outer ring were situated symmetrically to the north and south of the cairn ring. Both rings had been open for some time before the barrow was built, as they were partly ruined. There were no post sockets.

An oblong pit was dug EW in the centre of the cairn ring. Its bottom was flat and covered with brown soil, then with a black decayed fibrous material, and over that large flat stones. Over this was subsoil, and clay and small granite block mix. On this was set a lidded wooden coffin, 2.4m x 0.65m x 0.2m deep. Phosphate analysis confirmed that it had contained human remains. The top of the fill around the coffin contained selected stones: granite, quartz and bluish granite.

The second coffin was placed immediately on top of the first. It was packed around with grey subsoil which covered the pit. A central cairn of turves and granite was built over the pit, with a kerb on the western side. A turf stack was built over, then a yellow clay ring extended the mound beyond the turves, retained by a small kerb of granite lumps. Potsherds were only found on the ditch silt, and were from an Early Bronze Age enlarged food vessel. The turves from the mound produced flints, 3 stone tools, and some quartz crystals, none deliberately deposited. The ditch was filled in after the yellow kaolinised granite capping (brought from some distance) covered the barrow, and the final barrow cover was one of dark soil.

RC: from the primary silt of the ditch HAR-654 1520 +/- 70, HAR-655 1470 +/- 80
Remains/Period Y4
County Cornwall
Region SW
National grid square SW
X coordinate 973
Y coordinate 542
Bibliographic source Miles 1975a


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