Description

Summary: 2 small flint disks, found with a primary inhumation in a flat grave under a sarcen at Durrington Walls, excavated by William Cunnington.

Research results

A pair of flint discs found accompanying the Durrington Walls Sarsen burial in 1809, when it was unearthed by a sherpherd.

Discovered in 1809 by a shepherd, the location of the Durrington sarsen grave was never recorded precisely in the writings of Colt Hoare or Cunnington and was thought lost. Re-examining this grave group and its discovery, Higham and Carey (2019) suggest that the sarsen under which the burial was deposited corresponds to that recorded on the 1887 ordnance survey map, in the north-West corner of Durrington Walls’ henge ditch. In the absence of any human remains, they date the burial to the period after c.2200 (the fission horizon), post-dating the main phase of activity at Durrington. They note that the grave group is exceptional, and potentially includes a number of heirlooms, making it especially odd that the group does not contain a beaker, something that they suggest was a deliberate choice.