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 Wilsford (S) 51, Wilsford Cum Lake, Lake Group

Site number 460

Burial codes 4005 4009 4021 4024 4025 4028 4030 4035 4036 4043 4047 4051 4065 4071 4075 4084 4093 4098 4101 4104 4105 4108 4111 4128 4129 4143 4152 4153 4160 4181

2500bc-14/1300bc A round barrow with interrupted (causewayed) ditch of 8 pits and three conjectured phases. Phase 1 was an oblong grave at the centre oriented NNW/SSE 1.75m x 1m x 0.75m deep which Cunnington had probably dug into, whose first interment was a male inhumation c18-20. The disturbed refill contained fragments of developed southern Beaker and a food vessel. The quarry pits were dug to make the chalk mound covering the inhumation. An antler tine was discarded on the floor of pit H, and antler picks and rakes were found in the rubble of pit A. An Earlier Neolithic sherd came from pit D rubble.

In Phase 2 the mound and grave were opened and an inhumation burial was inserted of a young person c16. The mound was reconstructed with a core of dark occupation earth containing much Neolithic pottery, and the pits were recut to provide a chalk envelope.

In Phase 3, the mound appears to have been largely dismantled and thrown into the quarry pits which were completely refilled. Through the site of a pyre 1.5m to the east of the grave was dug a cylindrical pit 0.9m wide and 0.9m deep. A compact mass of cremated bone from an adult was placed at the base near the east side. The pit was filled with discrete deposits of burnt red-brown silt, fine sooty soil at the base, clean chalk rubble around the sides and a central mass of grey soil and chalk. The pyre remnant contained some cremated human skeletal material, charcoal, occupation debris, 70 chalk flints, 7 Neolithic sherds, and 1 possible Beaker sherd. Some sherds belong to the same vessels as appear in the Phase 2 mound. Charred timbers had been placed around and partly over the edges of the pit, and a thick layer of chalk rubble covered the whole. The mound was probably reconstituted with scraped up loam.

A linear ditch later than the pits ran NS to the west of the barrow, passing through quarry pit A. It contained in the base at the south end 5 sherds of Early Bronze Age globular urn in fresh condition, providing a terminus ante quem for Phase 3.

Remains/Period Y4

County Wiltshire

Region S

National grid square SU

X coordinate 115

Y coordinate 405

Bibliographic source Hoare 1812, Grinsell 1957a, Smith 1991

Query

Site name	Wilsford (S) 51, Wilsford Cum Lake, Lake Group
Site number	460
Burial codes	4005 4009 4021 4024 4025 4028 4030 4035 4036 4043 4047 4051 4065 4071 4075 4084 4093 4098 4101 4104 4105 4108 4111 4128 4129 4143 4152 4153 4160 4181
2500bc-14/1300bc	A round barrow with interrupted (causewayed) ditch of 8 pits and three conjectured phases. Phase 1 was an oblong grave at the centre oriented NNW/SSE 1.75m x 1m x 0.75m deep which Cunnington had probably dug into, whose first interment was a male inhumation c18-20. The disturbed refill contained fragments of developed southern Beaker and a food vessel. The quarry pits were dug to make the chalk mound covering the inhumation. An antler tine was discarded on the floor of pit H, and antler picks and rakes were found in the rubble of pit A. An Earlier Neolithic sherd came from pit D rubble. In Phase 2 the mound and grave were opened and an inhumation burial was inserted of a young person c16. The mound was reconstructed with a core of dark occupation earth containing much Neolithic pottery, and the pits were recut to provide a chalk envelope. In Phase 3, the mound appears to have been largely dismantled and thrown into the quarry pits which were completely refilled. Through the site of a pyre 1.5m to the east of the grave was dug a cylindrical pit 0.9m wide and 0.9m deep. A compact mass of cremated bone from an adult was placed at the base near the east side. The pit was filled with discrete deposits of burnt red-brown silt, fine sooty soil at the base, clean chalk rubble around the sides and a central mass of grey soil and chalk. The pyre remnant contained some cremated human skeletal material, charcoal, occupation debris, 70 chalk flints, 7 Neolithic sherds, and 1 possible Beaker sherd. Some sherds belong to the same vessels as appear in the Phase 2 mound. Charred timbers had been placed around and partly over the edges of the pit, and a thick layer of chalk rubble covered the whole. The mound was probably reconstituted with scraped up loam. A linear ditch later than the pits ran NS to the west of the barrow, passing through quarry pit A. It contained in the base at the south end 5 sherds of Early Bronze Age globular urn in fresh condition, providing a terminus ante quem for Phase 3.
Remains/Period	Y4
County	Wiltshire
Region	S
National grid square	SU
X coordinate	115
Y coordinate	405
Bibliographic source	Hoare 1812, Grinsell 1957a, Smith 1991