Devon Archaeol Soc Proc 59

The remains of an early Bronze Age cemetery were discovered in 1997--9 during archaeological recording at the site of housing development adjacent to Alexandra Close, Elburton, Plymouth. The partly truncated remains comprised five discrete pits, four containing pots and three cremated human remains. Sherds from three more vessels were also found. The pottery includes almost-complete examples of a small horseshoe-handled Biconical Urn, a large Trevisker Style 1 vessel and an under-fired Collared Urn. The cemetery is remarkable for the variety both of the deposits buried and of the forms and fabrics of its ceramics. Radiocarbon dates place these firmly in the first half of the second millennium cal BC. The cemetery appears to be associated with a large barrow, which lies north-west of the development area and which was only summarily surveyed. Includes:

analysis of bone from three Bronze Age deposits

six charcoal samples (two from each of the three principal `urned' deposits) were submitted

description of a small statuette found in a late Roman context

Excavations in Friernhay Street, Exeter, in 1981 found a small group of most unusual glazed ceramic vessels in the fill of a roadside ditch within the Early Roman town, datable to the second century AD (Bayley, J, 1989, Ancient Monuments Lab Rep No 55/1989). Examination and scientific analysis of the deposits on the vessels showed that they had been used for parting, that is the process of separating silver from gold.

A fragment of an alabaster panel, probably from a retable showing the Life of the Virgin, is described, and related to a major find of such sculptures at Pinhoe in 1831. Eleven other finds of alabasters in Devon are described, and documentary evidence relating to further retables and sculptures of alabaster formerly in the county is assembled. Despite strong local competition such works were evidently numerous here.