THE DATE AND SEQUENCE OF USE OF NEOLITHIC FUNERARY MONUMENTS: NEW AMS DATING EVIDENCE FROM THE COTSWOLD‐SEVERN REGION

Summary. In this paper we discuss 26 new Neolithic AMS dates obtained from human and animal bone from four previously undated funerary monuments in the Cotswold‐Severn region. By strategically targeting particular portions of these skeletal assemblages, a number of valuable inferences are made concerning the extent of variation in apparently co‐existing burial practices both within and between monuments. Of particular interest is the observation that variations in the extent to which interments have become disarticulated cannot necessarily be equated with chronological relationships regarding their deposition. This project has also obtained dates from cremated bone, which establish that the range of funerary treatments in practice during the earlier Neolithic also included cremation. Additionally it is observed that whilst some, apparently primary, deposits may in fact be later insertions, other material in apparently secondary contexts may actually return earlier Neolithic dates.