Bronze Age cremation group, Martell's gravel quarry (EHER 82021)

A group of Deverel-Rimbury cremations was uncovered during a watching brief in 1974. The cremations, comprising of three unurned and one unaccompanied multiple burial, all in pits, were already extensively damaged.

1974. Watching brief. A watching brief at Martell's gravel quarry in late 1974 revealed a group of cremations exposed along the quarry face. The cremations comprised of three unurned and one unaccompanied multiple burial, all in pits. These were already extensively damaged, both pits and urns being partially bisected by quarrying. A further deposit had been almost totally removed: only a few rim sherds remained, and these clearly not in situ. No trace of a ring ditch enclosure was found in the quarry face. The close spatial grouping of the pits, and the homogeneity of the pottery, suggest that the burials form a distinct group, largely contemporary or perhaps a family group. Although the unaccompanied cremation is stratigraphically earlier than cremation this may not have been by a large amount of time. The pots are all Deverel-Rimbury bucket urns and show the 'Ardleigh' multiple finger-tipping decorative technique, but there is no stylistic reason why the group should not be contemporary. The bones were examined by C.B. Denton, Department of Physical Anthropology, Cambridge (Full report held in Essex County Council Archaeological Record). A possible total of five persons was represented, two adult and three immature. The unurned burial included two individuals one adult, probably male, the other immature. One contained an adult, possibly female; two others each held one individual, possibly immature. Multiple burials are a feature at Ardleigh; at least ten are known from those earlier excavations where the deposits were analysed. No other finds were made with these burials. The pottery was deposited in Colchester Museum, accession number 179.1975. <1> <2> This find brought the total of known Deverel-Rimbury cremation burials to about 170, although of these a fair proportion of those examined have included the remains of more than one person. <1> From information supplied at this time by quarry workers it is apparent that many more cremations had already been destroyed without record in the area of the pit. <3>