In 1984 the entrance grave at Bosiliack, Cornwall, was excavated by Charles Thomas on behalf of the Institute of Cornish Studies. It was a comparatively small example, approximately 5 m in diameter encircled by a substantial kerb. A deposit of cremated bone was found within the chamber accompanied by sherds of plain pottery from three vessels. Two radiocarbon determinations were obtained on the cremated bone. The dates were almost identical, falling between 1690 and 1500 cal bc.Because Bosiliack is the only entrance grave in Cornwall to have been excavated to modern standards, and to have had any analyses undertaken on the contents of its chamber, it is significant to the study of small chambered tombs elsewhere. This paper outlines the results from the excavations before moving on to a discussion of the use of monument and a consideration of its possible affinities with monuments elsewhere.

with a contribution from JO HIGGINS This paper describes the results from a project to date Early Bronze Age daggers and knives from barrows in southwest England. Copper alloy daggers are found in the earliest Beaker associated graves and continue to accompany human remains until the end of the Early Bronze Age. They have been identified as key markers of Early Bronze Age graves since the earliest antiquarian excavations and typological sequences have been suggested to provide dating for the graves in which they are found. However, comparatively few southern British daggers are associated with radiocarbon determinations. To help address this problem, five sites in south-west England sites were identified which had daggers and knives, four of copper alloy and one of flint, and associated cremated bone for radiocarbon dating. Three sites were identified in Cornwall (Fore Down, Rosecliston, Pelynt) and two in Devon (Upton Pyne and Huntshaw). Ten samples from these sites were submitted for radiocarbon dating. All but one (Upton Pyne) are associated with two or more dates. The resulting radiocarbon determinations revealed that daggers/knives were occasionally deposited in barrow-associated contexts in the south-west from c. 1900 to 1500 cal BC.The dagger at Huntshaw, Devon, was of Camerton-Snowshill type and the dates were earlier than those generally proposed but similar to that obtained from cremated bone found with another dagger of this type from Cowleaze in Dorset: these dates may necessitate reconsideration of the chronology of these daggers.

A multi-period site was exposed during topsoil stripping at Town Farm Quarry, Burlescombe, Devon, in . Surviving remains included two Bronze Age burnt mounds with timber-lined troughs and pits, and a collection of well-preserved timber structures associated with a natural spring, constructed in the seventh century AD. A complete leather shoe of the same date was recovered from the fill of a hollowed tree trunk, probably used as a wellhead. A range of studies, including an extensive dendrochronological and radiocarbon dating programme, has illustrated the changing environment of the site and contributed to the interpretation of the assemblage. Early post-Roman sites remain particularly uncommon in Devon, with burnt mounds otherwise yet to be identified. INTRODUCTIONA varied collection of structures was revealed when depths of up to  m of colluvium were removed from a hollow in the southern part of Town Farm Quarry, Burlescombe, Devon (Illus  and : ST ). The work exposed two burnt mounds with associated troughs, and two large pits, one of which contained over twenty waterlogged timbers. It also identified two discrete timber structures; one built from worked timber planks and stakes, the second a hollow tree trunk surrounded by the remains of a stake and wattle fence. A programme of radiocarbon and dendrochronological dating has confirmed the Bronze Age date of the burnt mounds and their associated features, and shown that both timber structures had been built during the immediate post-Roman period. TOPOGRAPHY AND GEOLOGYTown Farm Quarry is located to the east of Burlescombe village, in a triangle of land between the B, and the road between Burlescombe and Little Eastbrook Farm to Archaeological Journal 2007.164:1-79.the north. The ground within the quarry drops to the north, from a height of  m AOD at the B, to  m at Little Eastbrook Farm.The site was situated on the western edge of a combe (Illus. ). In advance of quarrying, the surrounding fields were predominantly permanent pasture.The quarry is placed to utilize the northern continuation of the Budleigh Salterton Pebble Beds. These Triassic fluviatile deposits consist of beds of pebble and cobble gravels with some generally thinner beds of sand. The site lies on one of the thicker sand beds, sandwiched between overlying pebbly, sandy periglacial colluvium (head) and more clayey head lying in the bottom of a shallow valley (R. Taylor, pers. comm.). The natural deposits within the excavated area varied from grey sandy clays through to yellowish-brown silty sands.A distinctive feature of the site geology is the flow of water from the sand bed at the west edge of the site. This spring currently appears some  m below the present top of the sand and head. The sand is permeable and sufficiently unconsolidated to give rise to a running sand, where the sand becomes liquefied and mobilized by the water moving through it. A perched water table is retained at this level by a localized impervious layer, although this layer was not revealed du...

In 1990 a stone covered pit containing a Trevisker Ware vessel was found eroding from the cliffs at Harlyn Bay and excavated. The vessel contained cremated bone from several individuals with some animal bone, quartz pebbles, and a small bronze pendant. A radiocarbon date on the cremated bone fell in the range 2120–1880 cal bc and is a valuable addition to the small number of securely-dated Early Bronze Age burials in Cornwall with metalwork associations. This early date also makes a major contribution to the debate on the sequence of Trevisker Ware as the vessel, of gabbroic clay, has a band of incised chevron decoration. Lipid residue analysis showed traces of ruminant dairy fat. This paper examines the significance of unmounded burial sites in Cornwall and also assesses the importance of Early Bronze Age burials around Harlyn Bay which have produced an unusually wide range of artefacts.

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