Monument record 2042/0/6 - Middle Bronze Age cremation burial

Isolated cremation burial of a human infant

{1} An oval pit cut into a yellow brown silty clay alluvial horizon at 47.92mOD, an estimated 0.80m above the gravel. It was sealed by a further 1.10m of alluvium, which was 1.90m thick in total. The alluvium in this trench was typically 1.90m thick; the pit had been dug 1.10m from the interface between alluvium and topsoil and an estimated 0.80m above the gravel. It measured 1.20m x 1m x 0.12m deep and was filled with a heavy, dark grey clay loam (703) containing a large quantity of charcoal flecks and tiny fragments of burned bone. The cremation deposit contained the partial remains of an infant at least several months old at death who, in light of the evidence presented above, appears to have been burned on a pyre of hazel, blackthorn and oak sometime between 1440–1280 cal BC (95% confidence). A tiny fragment of a copper alloy object accompanied the remains but nothing was found to firmly date the feature.

The time span equates to the middle Bronze Age making the cremation slightly later than the presumed early Bronze Age date for the upstanding barrow lying c 300m to the north and the ploughed out group lying a similar distance to the west.

<1> Mason, P., 2007, Archaeological trial trench evaluation on land west of Earls Barton Quarry, Northamptonshire August 2007 (Report). SNN108110.

Record last edited

Aug 18 2022 10:11AM