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Jaime
Kaminski
Sussex Archaeological Society
Barbican House
169 High Street
Lewes
BN8 1YE
In the summer of 1997, an archaeological monitoring programme by Wessex Archaeology during trenching along the route of a water pipeline from Falmer to Balsdean, culminated in an excavation at The Bostle (TQ 537100 105400) adjacent to the scheduled Bronze Age and Anglo-Saxon barrow cemetery.
A small, mixed rite Bronze Age cemetery was excavated including four adult cremation burials, two of which were securely dated to the Early Bronze Age period, and five infant inhumation burials, one of which was radiocarbon dated to the Late Bronze Age. Four Saxon ring-ditches were excavated, three of which surrounded central graves containing the remains of inhumation burials. Evidence suggests that at least one of the latter was coffined and one shrouded. A radiocarbon date range of ad 640 - 879 was obtained from the coffined burial.
The temporal and spatial extent of The Bostle cemeteries has been shown to be greater than was previously appreciated. The dating of the Bronze Age burials and implied temporal variation in rite carries interesting implications for our understanding of Bronze Age mortuary rites and how they may have reflected the society burying its dead at The Bostle.