Middle Bronze Age cremations at Parcel A, land west of Isabel Drive (EHER 81125)

The earliest excavated remains comprised of three cremation burials, one of which was radiocarbon dated to the middle Bronze Age. No other remains could be reliably dated to this period, although a narrow trackway alongside the cremation burials was poorly dated and could have been contemporary.

July to November 2021. Excavation. The earliest features recorded were two unurned cremation burials situated c.7m apart within the northern excavation area, either side of the Iron Age to Roman trackway L2. They both had steep sides and flat bases, measuring 0.5–0.6m in diameter and 0.16m deep. They were backfilled with dark grey-brown clay sand with occasional inclusions of charcoal and minimal traces of human bone, less than 10g in each. No datable artefacts were recovered from either burial. Only the human bone from cremation burial G1 was suitable for radiocarbon dating, which returned a middle Bronze Age date (1221–1041/1036–1016 cal. BC). A further cremation burial G3 was excavated during the evaluation phase which preceded this excavation in Trench 32, c.3m south of G2 (TVAS 2013) see (EHCR: 48393). It had a similar profile with a slightly smaller diameter at 0.4m, although it produced a larger quantity of burnt bone (78g), several fragments of which were identified as human long bone shafts. It produced no datable artefacts, and was originally assumed to be prehistoric or Roman date, though the proximity of G1 suggests it is most likely to also date to the middle Bronze Age <1>.