SNN40182 - The Excavation of a Bronze Age Barrow at Earls Barton, Northamptonshire

A previously unrecorded bell barrow, situated on the flood plain of the River Nene, was excavated before its imminent destruction by gravel quarrying. A scatter of cremated bones, in apparent association with a bronze ogival dagger, was the only evidence of burial, but the barrow was significant as it was the first to produce radio carbon dates for the Bronze Age Wessex culture. There was an extensive area of burning on the pre-barrow surface, and uncalibrated dates of 1219 bc +_51 (BM680) and 1264 bc +_64 (BM681) were obtained from wood charcoal found at this level.