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 Beaulieu II, Watts Parlor

Site number 800

Burial codes 4001 4005 4021 4023 4025 4028 4030 4035 4042 4048 4051 4053 4065 4075 4084 4098 4104 4111 4128 4143 4152 4167 4181

2500bc-14/1300bc A bowl barrow with a wide square-cut ditch of varying profile, and a large turf mound built over a mortuary house. Over the turf mound edges had been thrown bright orange gravel and clay from the ditch, in sharp colour contrast to the dark mound. At the barrow centre was a pit 1.65m square dug into the old ground surface 0.6m deep, on a NW/SE axis. The walls sloped slightly and were carefully cut. There were 57 stake and stave holes in the floor following the wall lines, with two deeper holes, one at each side of the centre presumably to support the roof. A greasy black silt filled the whole pit, except for a layer of white sandy soil dipping steeply down at the sides, and running parallel with the pit bottom 15cm above the clay floor.

It was believed by the excavator that the pit and stake holes comprised a mortuary house holding a crouched inhumation which had been destroyed by the acid soil, except for a microscopic piece of bronze. This mortuary house had filled with silt before the roof collapsed (the white layer) and further silt built up to the top of the pit. A gulley post-dated the pit and pre-dated the barrow mound, and led into the south east corner of the pit from two post holes. It was made when the pit had nearly fully silted up. An object of clayey sand with pebbles had been set into the old turf line on the axis of the mortuary house 0.6m to the north west, its north west end lower in the turf than the south east end which rested on the top. Turves covered the object which was 1.1m long and had a concave upper surface, rounded ends with the narrower end (east) carefully bevelled. There were 2 more or less symmetrical projections 0.4m from the west end which caused the sides to be wider and higher at this point by some 25cm. A brick of the same material was between the east end and the mortuary house, and its east tip rested on a roughly circular area of carbonised wood. Another piece lay in the concavity of the main portion.

Another pit was dug to the south of the mortuary house, 0.6m deep x 1.7m x 1.35m and filled with turves The mound was then built over all these features.

Remains/Period Y4

County Hampshire

Region S

National grid square SU

X coordinate 350

Y coordinate 8

Bibliographic source Piggott 1943

Query

Site name	Beaulieu II, Watts Parlor
Site number	800
Burial codes	4001 4005 4021 4023 4025 4028 4030 4035 4042 4048 4051 4053 4065 4075 4084 4098 4104 4111 4128 4143 4152 4167 4181
2500bc-14/1300bc	A bowl barrow with a wide square-cut ditch of varying profile, and a large turf mound built over a mortuary house. Over the turf mound edges had been thrown bright orange gravel and clay from the ditch, in sharp colour contrast to the dark mound. At the barrow centre was a pit 1.65m square dug into the old ground surface 0.6m deep, on a NW/SE axis. The walls sloped slightly and were carefully cut. There were 57 stake and stave holes in the floor following the wall lines, with two deeper holes, one at each side of the centre presumably to support the roof. A greasy black silt filled the whole pit, except for a layer of white sandy soil dipping steeply down at the sides, and running parallel with the pit bottom 15cm above the clay floor. It was believed by the excavator that the pit and stake holes comprised a mortuary house holding a crouched inhumation which had been destroyed by the acid soil, except for a microscopic piece of bronze. This mortuary house had filled with silt before the roof collapsed (the white layer) and further silt built up to the top of the pit. A gulley post-dated the pit and pre-dated the barrow mound, and led into the south east corner of the pit from two post holes. It was made when the pit had nearly fully silted up. An object of clayey sand with pebbles had been set into the old turf line on the axis of the mortuary house 0.6m to the north west, its north west end lower in the turf than the south east end which rested on the top. Turves covered the object which was 1.1m long and had a concave upper surface, rounded ends with the narrower end (east) carefully bevelled. There were 2 more or less symmetrical projections 0.4m from the west end which caused the sides to be wider and higher at this point by some 25cm. A brick of the same material was between the east end and the mortuary house, and its east tip rested on a roughly circular area of carbonised wood. Another piece lay in the concavity of the main portion. Another pit was dug to the south of the mortuary house, 0.6m deep x 1.7m x 1.35m and filled with turves The mound was then built over all these features.
Remains/Period	Y4
County	Hampshire
Region	S
National grid square	SU
X coordinate	350
Y coordinate	8
Bibliographic source	Piggott 1943