Monument record MWX3246 - Early Bronze Age votive pit, Hengistbury Head, Bournemouth

Small shallow pit containing Early Bronze Age collared urn sherds and carbonised hazelnut shells and crab apples. This is probably a small votive pit and the evidence for the use of organic remains as votive or funerary offerings is of exceptional importance.

A shallow circular pit with a scooped base, 0.65m in diameter and 0.14m deep, was found in during an evaluation by Wessex Archaeology in 2001. The pit was filled with very dark brown sand which contained fragments of Early Bronze Age Collared Urn and a rich well-preserved and highly selective range of carbonised plant remains. The remains included several hundred hazelnut fragments, the remains of about ten crab apples, a possible sloe stone and a small amount of cereal grain. This assemblage is highly unusual and of national or international significance. The location of this pit within the Early Bronze Age cemetery landscape provides exceptionally important information on the use of organic remains as votive or funerary offerings. (1)

Harding, P, 2001, Hengistbury Head Outdoor Education and Field Studies Centre, Results of a Geophysical Survey and an Archaeological Evaluation, 7, 10-12 (Unpublished document). SWX8626.

Record last edited

Mar 28 2013 1:34PM