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 Barrow Hills Field 7, Radley

Site number 985

Burial codes 4001 4005 4021 4023 4025 4028 4030 4035 4041 4048 4051 4153 4065 4075 4084 4092 4096 4104 4105 4128 4143 4152 4153 4160 4181

2500bc-14/1300bc A bowl barrow with ditch cut through hard gravel rock layer at 1.2m depth, and a mound of three distinct layers: brown soil at the top, a leached iron pan layer, and fine grey stoneless soil at the bottom (the old ground surface) resting on the natural gravel. There was a possible gravel capping.

Just SW of the centre was an area of burnt soil c1.5m x 1.5m (probably the swept clean site of a funeral pyre), and at the NW corner of this was a small pit c0.6m in diameter cut into the lowest soil layer, with rounded bottom, and filled with dark soil containing many fragments of burnt wood and a small quantity of human bones. These belonged to an adolescent or young adult, possibly female or a slight male.

The consolidated state of the central old ground surface was explained as possibly due to trampling by human feet. This led to the pan forming here: nowhere else did it occur.

The excavator suggested the site was tenuously connected with the Wessex culture.

Remains/Period Y4

County Berkshire

Region SE

National grid square SU

X coordinate 517

Y coordinate 984

Bibliographic source Atkinson 1953

Query

Site name	Barrow Hills Field 7, Radley
Site number	985
Burial codes	4001 4005 4021 4023 4025 4028 4030 4035 4041 4048 4051 4153 4065 4075 4084 4092 4096 4104 4105 4128 4143 4152 4153 4160 4181
2500bc-14/1300bc	A bowl barrow with ditch cut through hard gravel rock layer at 1.2m depth, and a mound of three distinct layers: brown soil at the top, a leached iron pan layer, and fine grey stoneless soil at the bottom (the old ground surface) resting on the natural gravel. There was a possible gravel capping. Just SW of the centre was an area of burnt soil c1.5m x 1.5m (probably the swept clean site of a funeral pyre), and at the NW corner of this was a small pit c0.6m in diameter cut into the lowest soil layer, with rounded bottom, and filled with dark soil containing many fragments of burnt wood and a small quantity of human bones. These belonged to an adolescent or young adult, possibly female or a slight male. The consolidated state of the central old ground surface was explained as possibly due to trampling by human feet. This led to the pan forming here: nowhere else did it occur. The excavator suggested the site was tenuously connected with the Wessex culture.
Remains/Period	Y4
County	Berkshire
Region	SE
National grid square	SU
X coordinate	517
Y coordinate	984
Bibliographic source	Atkinson 1953