Monument record 0760200000 - County Museum garden

An excavation carried out during landscaping changes to the museum garden uncovered three phases of archaeological activity. Phase 1 was represented by a 'dark soil horizon' that has been identified on previous excavations on the site and elsewhere around Aylesbury. The horizon included finds of residual Iron Age, early Saxon, early-late medieval and post-medieval pottery. The residual Iron Age pottery was probably associated with the Iron Age hillfort in which the site stands. The dark soil may have started forming in the Saxon period with substantial re-working during later periods of activity. Phase 2 was represented by five articulated burials which cut throught the soil horizon into the natural strata. Two burial phases were identified within the cemetery. The first consisted of four burials aligned northwest-southeast, with the head to the northwest, laid out in a row. The deepest of these had a 7th century radiocarbon date of AD 650-690. the second cemetery phase consisted of a single burial that overlay the deepest burial and possibly cut a further burial that was aligned east-west, with the head to the west. All the burials were laid out in an extended supine position, with no grave goods. The burials are thought to be part of a wider cemetery associated with a minster in the vicinity. Phase 3 consisted of a number of post- medieval pits and a post-medieval construction cut for the site boundary wall. One of the pits contained a collection of disarticulated human bone from a single individual that probably represents a modern re-interment of an individual from the earlier cemetery (B1).