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Prehistoric barrow cemetery Five Hill Field, Melbourn

History of Prehistoric barrow nr Five Hill Farm

Scheduled Monument:

Five Hill Field cemetery includes five Bronze Age round barrows, as well as an Iron Age square barrow. Four of these barrows are no longer visible above ground, as their mounds have been reduced by ploughing, yet buried remains of all six barrows survive. Their surrounding ditches, from which earth was dug in the construction of the mounds, have become infilled over the years. However, they still remain visible as cropmarks (areas of enhanced growth resulting from the higher moisture content of buried archaeological features), which have been recorded by aerial photographs.

Cyril Fox refers to the site in The Archaeology of the Cambridge Region: a heath consisting of five or six slabs of sandstone was found bearing traces of fire on the upper surface, which was covered with a mass of human bones apparently burnt at the time of internment.

 

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