Preserved in the peat : an extraordinary Bronze Age burial on Whitehorse Hill, Dartmoor, and its wider context

Excavation of a Scheduled burial mound on Whitehorse Hill, Dartmoor revealed an unexpected, intact burial deposit of Early Bronze Age date associated with an unparalleled range of artifacts. The cremated remains of a young person had been placed within a bearskin pelt and provided with a basketry container, from which a braided band with tin studs had spilled out. Within the container were beads of shale, amber, clay and tin; two pairs of turned wooden studs and a worked flint flake. A unique item, possibly a sash or band, made from textile and animal skin was found beneath the container. Beneath this, the basal stone of the cist had been covered by a layer purple moor grass which had been collected in summer. Analysis of environmental material from the site has revealed important insights into the pyre material used to burn the body, as well as providing important information about the environment in which the cist was constructed. The unparalleled assemblage of organic objects has yielded insights into a range of materials which have not survived from the earlier Bronze Age elsewhere in southern Britain. Table of Contents Section 1: Background Chapter 1: Introduction Andy M Jones Section 2: Deconstructing and reconstructing the cist Chapter 2: Results from the 2011 fieldwork Andy M Jones Chapter 3: The micro-excavation and conservation of the artefacts Helen Williams Chapter 4: The wooden stakes from the Whitehorse Hill cist Richard Brunning Chapter 5: The samples of peat and possible soil from the cist at Whitehorse Hill M.G. Canti Section 3: Assembling the burial Chapter 6: The human remains Simon Mays Chapter 7: The wood charcoal Zoë Hazell Chapter 8: The charred textiles from the cremation deposit Susanna Harris Chapter 9: The matted plant material from the base of the cist Julie Jones Chapter 10: The pollen and non-pollen palynomorphs from the cist samples Ralph Fyfe and Marta Perez Section 4: Items with the young adult Chapter 11: The animal pelt Esther Cameron and Quita Mould Chapter 12: The copper-alloy pin Alison Sheridan, Esther Cameron and Henrietta Quinnell Chapter 13: The basketry container Caroline Cartwright, Maggie Cooper, Sherry Doyal, Dinah Eastop, Linda Lemieux and Ruth Stungo Chapter 14: The composite braided hair armband or bracelet Alison Sheridan, Esther Cameron, Caroline Cartwright, Mary Davis, Joanna Dunster, Susanna Harris, Linda Hurcombe, Jamie Inglis, Quita Mould, Caroline Solazzo and Helen Williams Chapter 15: The composite necklace Alison Sheridan, with contributions by Mary Davis, Joanna Dunster, Jamie Inglis, Henrietta Quinnell, Hal Redvers-Jones, Roger Taylor, Kate Verkooijen, Helen Williams and Lore Troalen Chapter 16: The wooden studs Alison Sheridan, Richard Brunning, Vanessa Straker, Gill Campbell, Caroline Cartwright, Stuart King and Henrietta Quinnell Chapter 17: The flint Anna Lawson-Jones Chapter 18: The textile and animal-skin object Esther Cameron, Susanna Harris and Quita Mould Section 5: The cist and the moor: the environmental setting of the site and its wider landscape context Chapter 19: The environment of the Whitehorse Hill cist Ralph M. Fyfe, Jeffrey J. Blackford, Mark Hardiman, Zoë Hazell, Alison MacLeod, Marta Perez and Sarah Littlewood Section 6: The radiocarbon dating Chapter 20: Interpreting the chronology of the cist Peter Marshall, Christopher Bronk Ramsey, Nicola Russell, Fiona Brock and Paula Reimer Section 7: Discussion, interpretation and conclusions Chapter 21: The results from the project Andy M Jones Appendices Appendix A: Chemical analysis of beads from the Whitehorse Hill cist Joanna Dunster Appendix B: Report on the scanning electron microscope (SEM) examination of the basketry container and other organic artefacts from Whitehorse Hill cist Caroline Cartwright Appendix C: Report on the proteomic analysis of hairs from the basketry container, the braided band and the pelt from the Whitehorse Hill cist Caroline Solazzo Contents 4 Acknowledgements 6 List of contributors 7 Summary 9 Résumé 11 Zusammenfassung 13 Section 1: Background 16 1. Introduction 17 Section 2: Deconstructing and reconstructing the cist 28 2. Results from the 2011 fieldwork 29 3. The micro-excavation and conservation of the artefacts 40 4. The wooden stakes from the Whitehorse Hill cist 48 5. The samples of peat and possible soil from the cist at Whitehorse Hill 51 Section 3: Assembling the burial 56 6. The human remains 57 7. The wood charcoal 59 8. The charred textiles from the cremation deposit 64 9. The matted plant material from the base of the cist 67 10. The pollen and non-pollen palynomorphs from the cist samples 75 Section 4: Items with the young adult 78 11. The animal pelt 79 12. The copper-alloy pin 84 13. The basketry container 87 14. The composite braided hair armband or bracelet 90 15. The composite necklace 103 16. The wooden studs 132 17. The flint 161 18. The textile and animal-skin object 163 Section 5: The cist and the moor: the environmental setting of the site and its wider landscape context 172 19. The environment of the Whitehorse Hill cist 173 Section 6: The radiocarbon dating 198 20. Interpreting the chronology of the cist 199 Section 7: Discussion, interpretation and conclusions 210 21. The results from the project 211 Appendix A 272 Appendix B 282 Appendix C 289 Index 302 "Excavation of a Scheduled burial mound on Whitehorse Hill, Dartmoor revealed an unexpected, intact burial deposit of early Bronze Age date associated with an unparalleled range of artefacts. The cremated remains of a young person had been placed within a bearskin pelt and provided with a basketry container, from which a braided band with tin studs had spilled out. Within the container were beads of shale, amber, clay and tin; two pairs of turned wooden studs and a worked flint flake. A unique item, possibly a sash or band, made from textile and animal skin was found beneath the container. Beneath this, the basal stone of the cist had been covered by a layer purple moor grass which had been collected in summer. Analysis of environmental material from the site has revealed important insights into the pyre material used to burn the body, as well as providing important information about the environment in which the cist was constructed. The unparalleled assemblage of organic objects has yielded insights into a range of materials which have not survived from the earlier Bronze Age elsewhere in southern Britain"--From publisher's website Presents detailed analysis of a highly unsual Early Bronze Age burial with preserved textiles, animal skin, basketry and an array of rare metal and organic objects, and discusses its wider environmental, social and burial context.