Burials
One of the main themes of the archaeological investigation of the Ridgeway Hill site is burial. These date from a number of different time periods and highlight the area was a focus for ritual activity for thousands of years.
The burials tend to occur in groups, which helps to date them and points to some form of relationship between the people being buried.
One group of five pits contained crouched skeleton burials dated to the Neolithic period (c. 4000 - 2400 BC) and represents some of the earliest evidence on the site.
There were also a number of small non-burial pits from this period which contained worked flint tools and animal bone, indicating that people were moving through the landscape or perhaps visiting the area to bury their dead.
Four 'cist' burials were also found on the site. A cist is a box constructed of limestone slabs and set in a pit, the burials are then placed inside. Only one of the cists contained a skeleton, in the others the remains had been cremated first and then placed in the ground.
Elsewhere on the site a number of other burials dating to the Bronze Age were uncovered. Six skeletons were found in a cluster towards the northern end of the site, one of these was in a stone-lined pit and another contained a complete pot of a very distinctive type known as a 'beaker'. A second 'beaker' burial was excavated some distance away from the main group.
Photos of the archaeological work and finds (opens in a new window) 
are available as a collection on our Flickr account.
