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Excavation of a Bronze Age Funerary Cairn at Manor Farm, near Borwick, North Lancashire

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 February 2014

A. C. H. Olivier
Affiliation:
Cumbria and Lancashire Archaeological Unit, Physics Building, University of Lancaster, Bailrigg, Lancaster
T. Clare
Affiliation:
County Planning Department, Cumbria County Council, County Offices, Kendal, Cumbria
P. M. Day
Affiliation:
Fitch Laboratory, British School at Athens, Souedias 52, GR106 76 Athens
D. Gurney
Affiliation:
Norfolk Archaeological Unit, Union House, Gressenhall, Dereham, Norfolk
D. Haddon-Reece
Affiliation:
Ancient Monuments Laboratory, Historic Buildings and Monuments Commission for England, 23 Savile Row, London W1X 2HE
F. Healy
Affiliation:
Chequers Cottage, Beeston Road, Great Fransham, East Dereham, Norfolk
J. D. Henderson
Affiliation:
Ancient Monuments Laboratory, Historic Buildings and Monuments Commission for England, 23 Savile Row, London W1X 2HE, and Institute of Archaeology, 31–34 Gordon Square, London WC1H 0PY
L. Hocking
Affiliation:
Ancient Monuments Laboratory, Historic Buildings and Monuments Commission for England, 23 Savile Row, London W1X 2HE
C. Howard-Davis
Affiliation:
Cumbria and Lancashire Archaeological Unit, Physics Building, University of Lancaster, Bailrigg, Lancaster
M. Hughes
Affiliation:
British Museum Research Laboratory, British Museum, London
R. T. Jones
Affiliation:
Ancient Monuments Laboratory, Historic Buildings and Monuments Commission for England, 23 Savile Row, London W1X 2HE
H. C. M. Keeley
Affiliation:
Ancient Monuments Laboratory, Historic Buildings and Monuments Commission for England, 23 Savile Row, London W1X 2HE
S. P. Needham
Affiliation:
Department of Prehistoric and Romano-British Antiquities, British Museum, London
J. Sly
Affiliation:
Ancient Monuments Laboratory, Historic Buildings and Monuments Commission for England, 23 Savile Row, London W1X 2HE
M. van der Veen
Affiliation:
17 Mavin Street, Durham

Abstract

The excavation of a large circular dished earthwork near Carnforth, North Lancashire, in 1982, has revealed a substantial Bronze Age funerary monument. The earliest structure was a sub-rectangular enclosure of limestone boulders dated to c. 1740–1640 BC cal. and associated with parts of two poorly preserved inhumation burials lying on the previously cleared ground surface. Both burials were accompanied by typologically early metalwork. The central inhumation was associated with a flat axe and dagger, suggesting an individual of high status as well as providing an important link between the early stages of development of both bronze types. The subsequent overlying cairn of smaller stones included eleven fairly discrete concentrations of inhumed bone, and seven of cremated bone and pottery. All this material was extremely fragmentary, and was probably derived from later re-use of the cairn.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © The Prehistoric Society 1987

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References

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