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Canada Farm's Bronze Age Burials

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Canada Farm's Bronze Age Burials CANADA FARM Bronze Age burials Keeping the family together Canada Farm’s Bronze Age burials Just how quickly did Bronze Age people bury their dead? New work by Lauren Bailey, Martin Green, and Martin J Smith at Canada Farm suggests that they went to : Martin Green, unless otherwise stated Martin Green, : some lengths to display the deceased prior PHOTOS ALL to their finally entering the earth. 20 current archaeology | www.archaeology.co.uk June 2013 | 020-026_CA279_CanadaFarm_SC.indd 20 18/04/2013 10:45 ABOVE The Dorset he first hint of a ring ditch for this work was provided when Martin’s latest Cursus, seen as a mark emerged in 1972, when Martin excavation revealed the remains of seven fur- in the plough soil from Green noticed a faint, curving ther individuals at the Canada Farm ring ditch, the site of the Canada line in freshly ploughed soil on ranging in date from the Beaker period (c.2,500- Farm ring ditch. Climbing Gussage Cow Down, it his Cranborne Chase farm in 1,700 BC) through to the Middle Bronze Age incorporates the long Dorset. Lying a mere 20m from (c.1,500-1,150 BC). barrow visible crowning the boundary of the great Dorset Cursus, the Detailed osteological studies of the primary the ridge. Tring ditch was just another very small element burial by Francine O’Malley and of secondary ABOVE LEFT An aerial view looking north-east of a vast ‘sacred landscape’ associated with the interments by Lauren Bailey were undertaken along the course of the longest Cursus monument in England. This as Master’s Degree dissertation projects at Cursus. The site of the landscape comprised several hundred monu- Bournemouth University, supervised by anthro- Canada Farm ring ditch ments dating to the Later Neolithic and Bronze pologist Martin Smith. This work produced evi- is marked with a cross, while an Iron Age ‘banjo’ Ages, which embellished the environs of the dence for remarkable post-mortem treatment of enclosure is visible at great spinal earthwork. the bodies, along with a surprisingly early radio- the bottom left. Thirty-five years later, the ring ditch appeared carbon date. Together these discoveries are chal- MAIN IMAGE The ring once more, this time on a 2007 geophysical lenging preconceptions of the treatment of the ditch on Canada Farm, first glimpsed in 1972, survey undertaken by Bournemouth University dead in these periods within Britain. under excavation in students supervised by Paul Cheetham. This The 2009 excavations revealed two phases of 2009. Two phases of picked up faint traces of a ditch and a substan- ditch. Both were very shallow, with the outer ditch are visible cut into tial central feature. As plough erosion was con- one about 0.4m deep and the later, inner ditch the chalk bedrock. The primary burial (INSET) tinuing, Martin decided to excavate the site in that cut it only surviving to 0.1m. Such shal- lay within a shallow pit, 2009. The results were completely unexpected. lowness underscored the need for excavation just off centre in the before the feature was lost forever. These rings centre of the monument. are often the only surviving traces of quarry This contained a 25- to Digging the ring ditch 30-year-old male buried ditches cut to win material for a prominent with a Beaker. The cut for Longstanding readers may well be familiar with burial mound, long since obliterated by the a possible coffin is clearly Martin Green. He has spent several decades plough. The recent reconstruction of a burial visible in the bottom of investigating archaeological features, many monument on Down Farm emphasises the dra- the pit. prehistoric in date, on his farm (CA 67 and 138). matic nature of such a mound: the brilliant, While many of the published explorations have gleaming white sepulchre clearly demonstrates focused on monuments, artefacts, and environ- the powerful visual impact of earthworks cut mental evidence, with the help of staff and stu- from fresh chalk. dents at Bournemouth University Martin is now Nine postholes lie directly north-west of the re-examining the human remains. The catalyst rings, representing a structure around 3m | Issue 279 www.archaeology.co.uk | current archaeology 21 020-026_CA279_CanadaFarm_SC.indd 21 18/04/2013 10:46 CANADA FARM Bronze Age burials ABOVE The ‘coffin cut’ as first revealed within the primary grave in the ring ditch. Note one or two of the bones are just starting to appear. LEFT An excavation plan of the Canada Farm ring ditch. The remains of a post-built structure are visible top left, while two phases of ditch can be seen ringing the monument. The primary burial can be seen in the central pit, while the secondary interments were placed in or just beyond the ditch. Rob Read Rob N: N: O I trat US ILL square. While the presence of a nondescript set of postholes might seem ambiguous at best, careful study of the human remains has revealed that the bodies were not simply buried and left to rest in peace immediately after death. The proximity of this structure to the burial monu- ment suggests it may have been where cadavers were temporarily laid after death, either in the form of a shielded morgue-style building or an excarnation platform where the deceased would be exposed to the elements, and any passing carrion birds. A Beaker burial The earliest burial within the ring ditch occu- pied a shallow recess, which may originally have held a rectangular, wooden coffin. This recess had been dug into the bedrock floor of a larger burial pit that was later in-filled with rubble. 22 current archaeology | www.archaeology.co.uk June 2013 | 020-026_CA279_CanadaFarm_SC.indd 22 18/04/2013 10:46 The skeleton belonged to a 25- to 30-year- old male. Interred in a foetal position (known technically as semi-flexed), he had been placed on his left side, facing east towards the path of the rising sun. While the body was mostly articulated when buried, the jaw had been removed and placed in the north-west corner of the ‘coffin’. The left and right arms were also slightly out of position, possibly after being disturbed when the jaw was removed. Alternatively, their movement may simply have been a consequence of the fragile nature of the sinews binding the bones together at the time of burial. Telltale traces of gnawing by scavenging carnivores suggest that the body had experienced short-term exposure prior to burial, although defleshing was incomplete when the remains were interred. The cause of death was not certain, but the deceased had received an only partly healed head injury. Accompanying grave goods included two slivers of a boar’s tusk and an antler pendant or ‘toggle’ left touching the man’s jaw. A Wessex/ Henderson Mike : : Middle-Rhine-style pottery Beaker and single oto PH flint flake were positioned by his feet. This par- ticular form of pot is associated with the Beaker Strip flesh from the bones ABOVE Conservator culture that developed in the Rhine region. It is Mike Henderson’s work the appearance of such pottery in Britain that The burial mound’s second phase of use belongs in progress on the beakers from Canada Farm. That triggers the development of the Wessex ‘Beaker to the Middle Bronze Age. Then, burials were to the left was placed culture’ – a term that was initially adopted to placed either within the ditches or, in one case, at the feet of the 25- refer to what is now seen as a specific social just outside them. The individuals were all rela- to 30-year-old male in stratum during the Early to Middle Bronze Age, tively young, including two adolescents (F3 and the primary burial. The beaker to the right was F4), one possible child or adolescent (F5), one characterised by ‘wealthy’ and elaborate grave found complete but goods. Although such cultural transmission infant of around 3 or 4 years old (F6), and, lying crushed in the northern implies a movement of people between the south-west of that, a cremation scatter associ- end of a further large, Rhine and Britain, strontium-isotope analysis ated with Middle Bronze Age pottery. On the shallow pit within the ring ditch. Seemingly basis of the teeth, the final burial to be uncov- on the deceased’s teeth indicates that he was unaccompanied, was native to the Wessex chalk lands. ered (F8), which cut the phase 1 ditch terminal, this Beaker buried with a Radiocarbon analysis of the primary burial was an adolescent or young adult. Aside from skeleton that was lost to returned a date of 2620-2470 cal BC, just pre- this last individual, whose skeleton had been either the localised acidic soil or ploughing? severely damaged by ploughing, most of the dating the start of the Beaker phase as currently FAR LEFT The Down defined in Britain. This seemed remarkably Canada Farm skeletons are relatively complete. Farm 80 ring ditch, lying early, so a second date was obtained from the The remains of F3 and F4 have been radio- in the field directly north same bone thanks to Mike Parker Pearson and carbon dated to 1620-1390 cal BC. While not all of Canada Farm, had its mound fully restored the bodies have been dated, similarities in burial the Beaker People Isotope Project. This produced in 2011. The positions a range of 2470-2290 cal BC. Failing a T-test for style suggest a similar time-frame. These five of three Middle Bronze significance, it is frustratingly clear that there is skeletons were all interred in a foetal position, Age burials found during a problem somewhere.
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