Two recent excavations, one at Lovedean, the other at St Peter’s Road, both in Hampshire, have recovered urned cremations. These were block-lifted in the field by Matt Nichol and team (Lovedean) and Chris Ellis and his team (St Peter’s Road) and returned to the Kemble office for micro-excavation in spits by Andy Clarke, Post-Excavation Archaeologist.
The three cremations from Lovedean have now been micro-excavated and are awaiting analysis but the micro-excavations showed that two of the three contained burnt bone. All the urns occurred as truncated vessels (either bases or tops) in a coarse flint-tempered ware, and initial impressions are that these were Middle Bronze Age barrel or bucket urns.
The 20+ cremations from St Peter’s Road are due to be micro-excavated in the coming weeks, so watch this space for further news. Both sites are going to post-excavation analysis. Pictured at left is Andy Clarke micro-excavating one of the Lovedean cremation urns, with each spit being photographed.
