Attitudes to Disposal of the Dead - Gazetteer Query Form

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Site name Wyke Down, Gussage St Michael
Site number 792
Burial codes 4005 4009 4021 4023 4025 4028 4030 4033 4042 4047 4051 4053 4064 4075 4084 4092 4098 4103 4108 4110 4111 4128 4143 4153 4181
2500bc-14/1300bc A henge like ring ditch comprising a 20m diameter ring of c27 deep pits separated by narrow causeways. The pits are roughly oval measuring 2m x 2.5m, and between 1.3-1.8m deep. There is a 3m wide causeway at the south and a central pit. After some years of weathering they were recut, some recuts containing deposits of animal bone, worked flints, a little cremated bone, one a fragment of human skull and one a substantial part of a grooved ware vessel. In the next natural filling by weathering were struck flintwork, a fragmentary mid/late Beaker and a collared urn sherd. The central pit in its secondary fill had a little struck flint, an animal bone and a leaf arrow head. In the western entrance pit a stone axe from Group 8 from South Wales and part of an unusual internally decorated grooved bowl was found.

Under the western edge of the ring ditch were found three crouched inhumation burials of an adult male on the left side, an adult female on the right side and a child on the left side. Two had been partly dug into the silted ditch.
Remains/Period Y4
County Dorset
Region S
National grid square SU
X coordinate 7
Y coordinate 153
Bibliographic source Green 1984, 1994


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Last updated: Tues Aug 10 2004