Flat cemetery in Quarry

Situated on a slight W and NW-facing slope down to the meandering SE-NW Tinnacross Stream, which is c. 70m to the SW, and c. 200m E of where the stream changes course to the SW. Two urn burials and several pit burials were identified in testing (E004551) land required for the M11 Motorway (Ruttle 2014, 7-8), and the cemetery and cereal-drying kiln (WX016-073002-) c. 6m to its SE were subsequently completely excavated (E004560). The northern inverted cinerary urns was in poor condition and was block lifted for excavation and conservation in laboratory conditions, but four pit burials (diam. 0.38-0.6m; D 0.17-0.44m) and four other pits, two groups of stake-holes, and deposits of burnt material were also present. The cemetery extended over a fairly small area (dims 15m NE-SW; 10m NW-SE) and a silted post-medieval field ditch (Wth 0.8-0.85m; D 0.3m) ran NE-SW c. 3m to the NW of the cemetery. The southern urn was inserted into the upper yellow pebbly silt and the lower charcoal-rich grey silt fills of a larger subrectangular pit (dims 0.74m x 0.54m; D 0.28m). There were three pit burials to the N of it together with a group of four closely-set stake-holes and three others. Two other pits with copious charcoal but no bone were S of this urn burial. About 9m to the NE of the southern urn was the northern urn burial with a large pit-burial (diam. 0.69-0.76m; D 0.15m) c. 1m to its NW and two other pits as well as eight stake-holes in its vicinity. (Ruttle 2015, 6-11) See the attached plan from Ruttle (2015, fig. 7) Compiled by: Michael Moore Date of upload: 26 November 2020