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Repton-Barrow Stratigraphy Essay

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APRIL GRACZ #11212645 ANTH 230 REPTON BARROW STRATIGRAPHY The Repton Long Barrow sits between the parish church and the River Esk in Repton, Bluffshire, U.K. Last summer, I examined evidence for previous disturbance(s) of the site and assessed the extent to which the original Neolithic burial mound remained intact. I excavated two different sites on the mound, one on the east end and another on the west end of the barrow. While excavating and cleaning each of the sections, I recovered artifacts and human bones. I was also able to draw a stratigraphic profile of each excavation site. Using documentary sources pertaining to the Repton Long Barrow site to assist in my interpretation of the history, I was able to reconstruct the …show more content…

This also accounts for 6 and 8 in Figure 3.3. In Figure 3.3, in the section labeled 5, I found a coin from 288 – 337 A.D. Because this section was a mixture of chalk rubble and topsoil and by the date of the coin, we can conclude this section is back fill from the building of the pathway in 1136. Having already noted the chalk for both figures are the same and 4 from West is the same as 6 from East, we also notice that 9 and 13 from East are the same silt as 7 and 9 from West. We can assume the same conclusion regarding the “pockets” being ditches that were filled in with silt by erosion. This can be further proven with the antler pick found in layer 13 East, as this tool was used to build the burial mound. On this side of the barrow, there was an excavation of the Priestess’s Barrow in 1744. Knowing that they found bits of bronze metal and a glass Chalice, we can conclude that layer 7 West is back fill from this excavation because I found bronze and glass dating from the first century in this layer. Layer 8 East matches the top layer of soil. This can be accounted for by erosion prior to the excavation in 1744. Along with the back fill from layer 7, layer 10 matches layer 7, so we can conclude that this is also back fill. Due to a penny, dated 1739, found in layer 2, we can conclude that this layer is also back fill from the excavation in 1744. We can assume the penny fell off of one’s

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