Monument record 7229 - Neolithic Ritual/Funerary Activity, Elton Bypass

Pre-construction survey and excavation along the route of the A605 Chesterton/Elton Bypass was undertaken in the spring and summer of 1989. A small complex of Neolithic monuments was discovered south-west of Elton Hall. There was a small hexagonal enclosure, the ditch of which contained early Neolithic pottery, flint blades and bone. A multiple inhumation pit contained the remains of at least five individuals possibly defleshed prior to burial. Two arcs of postholes were also identified, within one was a 'kerb' of river cobbles. The features were interpreted as the plough-damaged remains of two cairns. A rectilinear field system was probably established in the late Neolithic/early Bronze Age.

{1} Pre-construction survey and excavation along the route of the A605 Chesterton/Elton Bypass
(French, forthcoming) was undertaken in the spring and summer of 1989. A set of ceremonial/burial/settlement features set within a rectilinear ditch system was identified.
There was a small sub-squared ditched enclosure about 12m diameter. The ditch contained abundant small abraded sherds of pottery, flint blades and waste and very small fragments of burnt and un-burnt bone. There was an open, multiple inhumation pit. This 2m wide, sub-rounded pit contained the disarticulated remains of at least five different humans, as well as two later Neolithic, backed blade flints. It is possible that the bodies were already defleshed prior to burial. There were two arcs of post holes, the larger of nine post holes and the smaller of four post holes. Within the larger arc was a 'kerb' of four large river gravel pebbles. Possibly the remains of Neolithic cairns. An enclosed rectilinear system of shallow narrow ditches composed of at least two fields with corner entranceway and droveway.

{2} The enclosure is actually hexagonal. Most of the pottery came from this feature. The primary fill produced a rim sherd of earlier Neolithic Mildenhall type ware. The secondary fill produced the bulk of the pottery predominantly of Mildenhall-type ware. The flint from this feature was also typologically earlier Neolithic. Five individuals were identified in the pit to the south; four were adlts and the fifth was a child of c4 years, although all the bone was very fragmentary.
A group of pits contained diagnostic Mortlake pottery of the later Neolithic Peterborough tradition.

<1> Musgrave E.C.; Tingle M. (editors), 1991, Excavation in Advance of the A605 Bypass at Elton, p.79-82 (unchecked) (Article). SNN100323.

<2> French, C A I, 1994, The Haddon Farmstead and a Prehistoric Landscape at Elton: The Archaeology along the A605 Elton-Haddon Bypass, Cambridgeshire (Monograph). SNN112397.

Record last edited

Mar 15 2021 4:16PM