Middle Bronze Age cremation cemetery (EHER 2142)

The remains of at least 50 ring ditches visible as cropmarks and partially excavated in 1989 belong to a Middle Bronze Age cremation cemetery.

Original HER entry merged with NRHE data import. The cropmarks are mainly rectilinear but on the east side about 30 small ring ditches tightly clustered, some with central pits. NW of these but in the same field is a larger ring ditch, with a dark central area, contiguous to a rectangular enclosure. The whole area in between and to the north is covered with the remains of rectilinear field systems and trackways, also a large number of dark spots- pits/burials? <1> - <12> <21> Fieldwalking in 1979 produced one struck flake and sherds of pottery tempered with grog and a freshly broken sherd tempered with abundant coarse quartz. The finds are in Colchester Museum. <20> 1989-1990. Excavation. These excavations targeted the greater part of this cluster of ring ditches, with some known to be outside of the excavation area. After topsoil stripping ring ditches were noted within the central and eastern part of the site, but a further ten ring ditches recorded from aerial photographs further to the west were not visible, and were never located. This seems to be because these were in an area of brickearth which obscured any remaining features. At this stage, a number of cremation burials were also identified, eight of which lay within ring ditches, but the majority of which were distributed in groups between them. Other features included ditches, pits and post-holes, some of which had also been visible on aerial photographs. The excavation policy was to excavate at least one segment through each ring ditch, to fully excavate all cremations and to sample all other features. Thirty-one ring ditches were located within or partly within the excavated area. The ring ditches tended to vary in plan from almost perfectly circular to distinctly ovoid; in profile the ditches were generally U-shaped, and none appeared to have been deliberately infilled. The ring ditches varied in diameter between 4m and 12.05m, with internal diameters between 2.2m and 7m. Only three of the ring ditches surrounded cremation burials and these were all in the western part of the site, and were among the smallest of the ring ditches. Of the 48 cremation burials, 34 were contained within or covered by bucket urns. Of the urned burials 16 were upright and 16 inverted. Eight burials (seven urned, one unurned) were within ring ditches. The ring ditches were sited carefully, respecting one another, and the distribution of ring ditches and burials suggests that the earliest features were in the north-east of the cemetery. See <13> for a detailed discussion of the results of the excavation. See also <14> Site Assessment = In consent area for Moverons Pit, but most of area considered economically unworkable - being ploughed. Some further linear features were mapped as part of the NMP update, with possible enclosure and a pit <15-18>