The inhumation burial

Pit 180 was 1.55m in diameter by 0.50m deep, with near 
vertical sides and a flat bottom. It was filled with 
grey-brown clay containing moderate inclusions of 
limestone chips and small fragments. There were some 
scattered patches of comminuted charcoal at the level 
of the inhumation burial, which had been deposited on 
top of 0.20m of fill.  A small pottery assemblage 
compnses early Iron Age forms (ceramic phase 1), and 
a radiocarbon date from the bones of the burial is 
centred on cal BC 390 (cal BC 405-370 at 1 sigma, Beta-i 16571).

The inhumation burial lay face down, with the top of 
skull tight against the side of the pit (Fig ** and plate **). 
It was aligned north-west to south-east with the head 
to the south-east.  The arms were folded under the torso 
and they crossed just above the wrists, and the hands lay 
under the face. The skeleton lay slightly on its right 
side, with the legs tightly contracted.  The contraction 
of the legs suggests that the body may well have been 
trussed in this position, and the crossing of the arrns 
just above the wrists would also be consistent with the 
arms having been bound. The damage to the back of the 
skull occurred when the burial was located during mattock 
excavation of the pit fill.

Around the neck there was a torc or neck ring comprising 
two square-sectioned, twisted rods of lead (Fig * and Plate *). 
They both had decorative, circular-sectioned terminals at 
one end, while the opposed terminals were respectively 
perforated and notched to retain a binding, which had not 
survived (Fig ** and Plate *). As found, the cfrcular terminals 
overlapped at the nape of the neck and were still in close 
juxtaposition. Following removal of the skull, it was evident 
that the lower parts of the two arms had become displaced, 
so that the ends lay some 40mm apart, indicating that the 
original binding had been with some organic material (Plate *). 
The arm with the perforated terminal was fractured in two places, 
but otherwise it appears to have
retained its original shape. The arm with the notched terminal 
had lain near vertically in the ground and, as a result, it 
had been distorted out of shape by soil pressure. It had fractured 
at the mid-point, where most of the distortion had occurred, 
and towards the expanded terminal.