Two Beaker Burials from Chilbolton, Hampshire

Abstract

The stripping, for commercial purposes, of an area of chalk downland near Leckford, Hants., led to the excavation of a small ring ditch containing the remains of two male inhumations. The earlier, 3740±80 BP uncal., buried in a mortuary chamber, was accompanied by a bell-shaped beaker of early type (with European or Wessex/Middle Rhine affinities), an antler spatula, two pairs of gold earrings, a gold tubular bead, 55 stone beads, a copper dagger, a flint strike-a-light, a marcasite nodule and a number of flint tools and flakes. The second burial, 3780±80 BP uncal., interred shortly after the first in the same grave, was accompanied by a finger-nail decorated beaker and two flint flakes.