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Site name | Collingbourne Kingston 8, Snail Down |
Site number | 499 |
Burial codes | 4005 4009 4021 4023 4025 4028 4030 4035 4036 4041 4048 4051 4053 4065 4075 4084 4085 4091 4098 4104 4111 4121 4128 4129 4143 4152 4153 4154 4160 4161 4181 4200 |
2500bc-14/1300bc | A bell barrow built on the old land surface, covering the remains of a funeral pyre 1.8m square, 1m or so north of the central point. A shallow ragged pit was scraped through the floor of the pyre, and an urn placed in it containing cremated bone. Pit material, ashy soil, and then wood ash sealed the urn pit and a large stack of turves was heaped over it. Turf from the berm and ditch were piled on top and the chalk excavated from the ditch formed a capping. On the berm were two secondary cremations in the south west quadrant. One was in a large collared urn placed in a pit and covered by a dome of flints; with the ashes were beads of shale and amber, and one of faience. The second was also in a collared urn placed in a pit and supported on opposite sides by miniature urns. A flint cairn covered this originally but was thrown aside and the main urn contents scattered on the ground. Three shallow oval pits had been dug at equal intervals around the outer edge of the ditch just after silting had begun. These pits silted up in due course, being otherwise empty. A variety of pottery was found in the mound and the ditch (A and B Beaker sherds, mostly fresh; rusticated wares including Woodhenge grooved ware). On the barrow floor a collared urn had been broken and trampled into the ground. RC: from charcoal in the funeral pyre NPL-141 1540 +/- 90 |
Remains/Period | Y4 |
County | Wiltshire |
Region | S |
National grid square | SU |
X coordinate | 217 |
Y coordinate | 520 |
Bibliographic source | Thomas and Thomas 1955 |
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Last updated: Tues Aug 10 2004