Monument record 2529/1 - Probable Middle Neolithic Cremation Cemetery, Milton Ham

Archaeological excavation identified a dispersed group of three cremations, one of which was radiocarbon dated to the late 4th millennium BC, the middle Neolithic period. The burials were associated with several other small pits, three of which may have been truncated burials, while two larger pits may have held wooden posts, perhaps cemetery marker posts.

{1} Near the centre of the excavation area there was a dispersed group of five small pits and two larger pits. Several of the pits were sealed beneath the buried soil horizon that occurred intermittently across the site beneath the subsoil.
Two of the smaller pits contained cremated human bone. A third pit also contained small amounts of cremated bone; although this was almost certainly the remains of a third human cremation, it was too degraded for a definite determination to be made. It is possible that the two other pits are the truncated remains of two further cremation deposits, where all evidence of their contents had been entirely lost, although they could be postholes, perhaps for grave markers. Fragments of bone from Cremation (2) were submitted for radiocarbon determination, which provided a date of 3350-3020 Cal BC (98% confidence, 4470 +-40BP; Beta 257958), placing the cremation group in the middle Neolithic.
The small pits, including those containing cremated bone, had diameters of between 0.29m and 0.48m and depths between 0.13m and 0.20m.

The two larger pits are undated, but their proximity to and apparent association with the group of small pits/cremations suggests that they may date to the Neolithic and form part of the funerary site. The sequence and arrangement of the fills and the presence of a number of cobbles in the centres of both pits indicate that they are likely to have held wooden posts.
Pit 172 had a diameter of c.1.2m and a depth of 0.52m, near vertical sides and a flat base. The primary fill appears to have been packed around a large post. In the centre of the pit a fill contained large rounded cobbles up to 250mm in size, their distribution indicating the former position of the wooden post.
The second large pit lay c.15m to the north of the first. It was of roughly the same diameter but only 0.37m deep. In the centre of the pit were several small rounded cobbles suggesting that the pit had also once held a wooden post.

<1> Carlyle S., 2010, Neolithic Cremations And A Romano-British Enclosure at Milton Ham, Northampton, February and March 2008, p.7 (checked) (Report). SNN107968.

<2> Carlyle, S. & Chapman, A., 2012, Neolithic Cremation Burials at Milton Ham, Northampton (Article). SNN108360.

Record last edited

Sep 21 2021 3:12PM