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 Hodcott Barrow 'a'

Site number 960

Burial codes 4001 4005 4021 4023 4025 4028 4030 4035 4036 4041 4046 4051 4065 4075 4084 4092 4098 4101 4106 4122 4123 4141 4152 4153 4181 4200

2500bc-14/1300bc A bowl barrow on whose site a small intense fire was first lit, not large enough for a pyre. A small pit was next cut through the old land surface into the chalk, the spoil dumped to the east. The pit was well cut, showing no sign of tool marks. It contained a large sample of bone from a probable male c30 or more, clean but incompletely cremated, and some bone broken after cremation. In association was a bronze dagger in a wooden scabbard, a bronze awl which had passed through heat, and also an unidentified possibly organic substance. All was in a tightly defined space within the backfill of the pit, implying its placing in a container when deposited.

Before the mound was built, two stake circles were erected concentric with the burial pit. The mound was constructed of humus including turves, and then capped with ditch derived chalk. The mound contained a quantity of Late Neolithic (Mortlake) to Early Bronze Age (Beaker, collared urn) pottery, with notable clustering of miscellaneous Early Bronze Age or collared urn sherds to the south east of the burial area. In the upper ditch fills there were sherds of bucket and globular urn (possible traces of secondary funerary activity).

RC: from first fire charcoal HAR-3599 1390 +/- 70, HAR-3608 1420 +/- 70, HAR-3607 1540 +/- 80

Remains/Period Y4

County Berkshire

Region SE

National grid square SU

X coordinate 473

Y coordinate 815

Bibliographic source Richards 1986-90

Query

Site name	Hodcott Barrow 'a'
Site number	960
Burial codes	4001 4005 4021 4023 4025 4028 4030 4035 4036 4041 4046 4051 4065 4075 4084 4092 4098 4101 4106 4122 4123 4141 4152 4153 4181 4200
2500bc-14/1300bc	A bowl barrow on whose site a small intense fire was first lit, not large enough for a pyre. A small pit was next cut through the old land surface into the chalk, the spoil dumped to the east. The pit was well cut, showing no sign of tool marks. It contained a large sample of bone from a probable male c30 or more, clean but incompletely cremated, and some bone broken after cremation. In association was a bronze dagger in a wooden scabbard, a bronze awl which had passed through heat, and also an unidentified possibly organic substance. All was in a tightly defined space within the backfill of the pit, implying its placing in a container when deposited. Before the mound was built, two stake circles were erected concentric with the burial pit. The mound was constructed of humus including turves, and then capped with ditch derived chalk. The mound contained a quantity of Late Neolithic (Mortlake) to Early Bronze Age (Beaker, collared urn) pottery, with notable clustering of miscellaneous Early Bronze Age or collared urn sherds to the south east of the burial area. In the upper ditch fills there were sherds of bucket and globular urn (possible traces of secondary funerary activity). RC: from first fire charcoal HAR-3599 1390 +/- 70, HAR-3608 1420 +/- 70, HAR-3607 1540 +/- 80
Remains/Period	Y4
County	Berkshire
Region	SE
National grid square	SU
X coordinate	473
Y coordinate	815
Bibliographic source	Richards 1986-90