Excavation of two irretrievably threatened Bronze Age barrows was completed in the summer of 1996, and revealed a major monument. The larger of the barrows demonstrated continuity of use as a site for burial and ritual commencing in the Neolithic and ceasing in the Romano-British period. The earliest phase was marked by an excarnation platform containing numerous sherds of Neolithic pottery and fragments of human bone. The bones represent all age groups and the assemblage recovered (small bones and fragments of long bones) indicates that bodies were exposed before the defleshed skeletons were collected for burial elsewhere. The Neolithic phase is followed by two, possibly three, phases of Beaker activity. Originally three graves were cut into the limestone and a corpse placed in each. Subsequently, the more central grave was deepened, and a cist was constructed to contain the three skeletons which were gathered up and reburied. The cist was left uncovered for an unknown length of time before a small mound was constructed over the burial. During the Bronze Age, a Food Vessel burial was placed adjacent to the Beaker cist and a mound was then constructed over all the burials and the former excarnation enclosure. Various burials and cremations were placed within the mound throughout its construction, and a final burial was inserted in the eastern side of the mound during the Romano-British period. The smaller of the two barrows was constructed entirely during the Bronze Age, and there was no trace of pre-Bronze Age activity. Thomas Bateman's excavation of 1848 was identified and recorded, and showed that his records are surprisingly accurate.
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