Three cart burials from Wetwang, Yorkshire

Abstract

In Garton Slack and Wetwang Slack, which together constitute one stretch of a dry valley to the west of Driffield, gravel extraction over 20 years has resulted in the excavation of a large part of an extensive Iron Age settlement.Roads and ditches formed a focus for scores of buildings—roundhouses and post squares—as well as a cemetery of 446 inhumations in the ‘Arras Culture’ tradition and the first cart burial (in 1971) to be excavated under modern conditions (Dent, 1982, 1983; Brewster, 1971; 1981; Stead, 1984). Startling though many of these finds were, none exceeded the discovery of a group of three cart burials in the summer of 1984.The first grave was discovered by the quarry manager, Mick Ward, who recognized it as a cart burial (he had seen the 1971 find, as well as numerous other burials in the valley) when the dark discolouration of the fill appeared in the quarry face and part of one tyre and the skull were exposed. He reported his discovery at once and I visited the site the same afternoon. The part of the quarry where the find was made had been stripped of topsoil a week or two earlier.

British Iron Age chariot burials of the Arras culture: a multi-isotope approach to investigating mobility levels and subsistence practices

“…Bayesian analysis dates its main period of use to the 3 rd and early 2 nd centuries BC, with burial possibly starting before 300 BC, but with the majority of burials taking place within a 150 year core period (Jay et al 2012). It contains over 450 burials, many of them under barrows surrounded by four-sided ditches ('square' barrows) and some accompanied by La Tène-style artefacts, with three chariot burials located together on the edge of the excavations just outside of the main part of the cemetery (Dent 1984;Dent 1985b;Dent 1985a). …”

The girl with the chariot medallion: a well-furnished, Late Iron Age Durotrigian burial from Langton Herring, Dorset

“…The mirror from Birdlip, Gloucestershire, discovered with one of three burials excavated in the nineteenth century, was assessed as female (Staelens 1982) although the pathology report unfortunately remains unpublished. Similarly, no osteological data were provided in the article presenting the 'young adult female' in wheeled-vehicle burial 2 from Wetwang Slack, Yorkshire (Dent 1985). Two short articles detailing the 'mature female' from the wheeled vehicle burial at Wetwang Village (Hill 2001(Hill , 2002 do not discuss human remains in any detail.…”

Performing Pain, Performing Beauty: Dealing With Difficult Death in the Iron Age

“…In the case of the chariot burial at Wetwang Slack (CB1, also known as WS453, East Yorkshire: Dent 1985), it is likely that someone with smithing or woodworking skills carefully removed the iron 'J' shaped linch pins from the axle, eased off the wheels and placed them in the grave (Fig. 4).…”

“…) front' arrangement that may have been an important part of inverting norms during the funeral rite to assist the deceased's departure (Parker Pearson 1999). The body was either placed in or covered over by the box of the chariot; and at some point, a total of seven iron spearheads were placed in the grave at a variety of angles (Dent 1985), or else 'cast in' as another example of the post-mortem spearing rite (Giles 2012, 187). This individual had a remarkable life history, distinguished by a permanent hole in his head caused by a sharp-force trauma wound from either a sword or an axe (King 2010).…”