Late Bronze Age cremations, post holes and ditch, NE Chelmsford Bypass sites TT06-TT08, North of Drakes Lane (EHER 80777)

Trial trenching in areas TT06-TT08 recorded three unurned Late Bronze Age cremation burials as well as post holes and a ditch of the same date and which produced a small assemblage of pottery. A single undated post hole was the only feature in area TT08. The cremations fit into a wider landscape of Late Bronze Age cremation burial.

August 2021. Trial trenching. The only archaeological activity within area TT06 was a single unurned cremation of Late Bronze Age date. A further two unurned cremation burials of the same date were located in the South of area TT07. This area also contained several postholes, or small pits, and a ditch which produced a small assemblage of Bronze Age and Iron Age pottery as well as a single piece of metalworking slag, burnt flint and fired clay. A single post hole was the only feature in area TT08 and contained no dating evidence. Other Late Bronze Age unurned cremation burials have also been recorded in this landscape by this programme of evaluation in areas TT05, TT09 and further North at TT16 (see EHER 80776, EHER 80778 and EHER 80780), and by trial trenching in 2014 at EHER 49015. They may represent a local practice of separate groups in the Late Bronze Age, some conducting isolated unurned cremations and others conducting urned cremations in closer proximity to their habitation site, as seen at the present day Bulls Lodge quarry site (see EHER 46881, EHER 46213 and EHER 46463). Alternatively, they might reflect stratification of one population/group with higher status individuals being cremated and deposited in vessels, while lower status burials were positioned more remotely and were unurned. <1>