Monument record 0061201000 - BELOW GOMM'S WOOD

Plan Form - CONTRACTED
PERFECT HUMAN SKELETON LYING IN CIST OR OVAL PIT. IN CONTRACTED POSITION, LYING ON ITS LEFT SIDE, HEAD TOWARDS E & LEANING AGAINST SIDE OF PIT. APPEARED TO BE THAT OF AN ADULT MALE IN PRIME OF LIFE & OVER 6FT TALL. PHOTO (B1).
CEPHALIC INDEX OF SKULL 74.2 (B3).


A contracted burial was discovered on the spur of a hill below Gomm's Wood and about 90 feet above Micklefield Lane (Area SU 892929); subsequently excavated in 1932 by F Colmer.

The skeleton (with dolichocephalic skull) was in an oval pit sunk into the chalk, measuring 4 feet by 2 feet, and some 4 1/2 feet below ground level. There were no surface indications of a barrow, and no grave goods were found apart from a "certain number of flint flakes and a portion of a worked flint".

Colmer considers the burial to be Early Bronze Age (but the lack of grave goods and absence of scientific examination of the remains casts some doubt on this classification). (1)

No further information to indicate precise find-spot. Mr F Colmer is now deceased. (2)