NHER 23650 (Monument record) - Early Bronze Age burnt mound and inhumation

19 March 1987. Fenland fieldwalking. Field on east bank of Little Ouse.
Rolled and weathered ploughsoil.

Context 1.
Odd flints and pot boilers and one Beaker sherd from general scatter. FWL EM.
Identified by F. Healy (NAU).

Context 2 at 6325 8850.
38m northwest to southeast x 37m northeast to southwest at 0.7m OD. Concentration of potboilers abundant, forming a slight mound 0.2m high at most. Shows on aerial photographs. FWL 171.
R. J. Silvester (NAU), 23 March 1987.

For full details of wares, flint types, etc. see (S1).

1989 to 1990. Fenland Evaluation Project.
Auger traverse across site indicated survival of intact potboiler/charcoal layer beneath peaty ploughsoil. Samples taken. See list in file.
M. Leah (NAU), August 1990.

October/December 1992. Excavation. Contexts 3-104.
As part of the Fenland Management Project, excavation of one of eight burnt mounds (as opposed to potboiler scatters) located by R. Silvester (NAU) in Wissey Embayment. Mound partially peat covered and about 15m in diameter and over 0.15m thick. Little trace of a burned soil. Prehistoric clearance and erosion? A number of burnt flint filled pits plus a contracted inhumation from beneath centre of mound. Probably contained in a coffin or log, perhaps with a mortuary structure. A single flint scraper only grave good. A large waterlogged pit to northwest of mound produced a wooden trough.
See published reports (S2) and (S3) and archive report (S4) for further details. The results of this work are also summarised in (S5). The prehistoric pits are amongst those discussed in (S6).
M. Leah (NAU) 16 July 1993.

Fenland Survey.
Low mound, no more than 0.2 metres high, consisting of fire cracked flints. Spread by plough over area 37 x 38 metres. Beneath the mound was a number of pits, occassionally filled with unshattered burnt flints and a single crouched inhumation with a flint scraper (late Neolithic/Early Bronze Age) in a coffin or hollowed out log. Stains around the edge of the grave pit perhaps indicated the presence of a planked mortuary structure.
J. Allen (NLA), 14 September 2000.