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| Area: North |
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| Dug in Year: 2003 |
| Feature Type: burial |
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| Location: |
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| Grid X: 1036.1 Grid Y: 1045.8 |
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F.1244 is a Neolithic multiple burial placed in the northwest corner of a building on the basis of walls visible after the removal of topsoil.
The remains of numerous individuals were present in the fill but the most articulated body appears to be skeleton 8813. The bone was in very bad condition and difficult to separate into different skeletons. However, skeleton numbers were mainly assigned to skull/mandible elements to provide some estimate of the number of individuals since these elements preserve better and can be aged more accurately. Some of the skeletons may have been split between more than one unit number but there seems to be between 5 and 7 individuals present representing both adult, subadult and juvenile skeletons.
The burials were lying directly over a plaster floor; this would have probably been a floor from previous building to the one that the burials are associated with and formed a good base to the burial pit. This plaster floor was slightly sloped with the northern side higher; on the southern side the burial and its underlying plaster floor had been cut by two later burial (F.1242 and F.1402-see relevant feature sheets discussions of these). The first of these cuts had caused a significant quantity of bone from F.1244 to slump into its cut; a number of bones from F.1244 could be seen lying on the edge of cut [8834].
Skeleton 8813 was buried with a stamp seal (8813x1) and a marble? elongated, rectangular bead (8813x2). The stamp seal was located between the distal femur (8813)and some dentition (both 8841 or 8842) and under a rib suggesting that it may have been placed between the head and knees of a crouched burial.
The X-finds mentioned above and many of the X-finds from the burial fill were recovered in a concentration perhaps suggesting that they were buried in a group. These also include two bear teeth and worked stones, a bone ring preform and a bone 'fork'. Other finds were recovered from the flotation and include a bead made from a stratified rock and a white bead of similar shape to those found in F.1242 |
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| In situ Conservation: No |
| Lifted: No |
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| Feature Relationships: |
| below: (Click to view the record) 1243 |
| cut by: (Click to view the record) 1242, 1402 |
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| Number of Related Diary Entries: 1 |
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| Conservation Recorded: No |
| Related Photos: 22 (Opens as a group in a new window) | Buildings:
none | Spaces: (Click to view the record)
| | No. Of Units in this Feature: 10 (Click here to view unit list) |
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