Bronze Age burial mound artefacts to go on display

Bronze Age artefacts found in an ancient burial mound in Leeds offer a "fascinating" insight into how people were laid to rest, experts say.

Cremated remains and fragments of an urn were among items found during archaeological investigations on a housing project at Pitty Close Farm in Drighlington.

The artefacts are believed to be part of funeral rituals carried out by local people about 4,000 years ago.

The collection will be stored at Leeds Discovery Centre, with three artefacts going on display to the public later this year.

The discoveries were made by experts from West Yorkshire Archaeological Advisory Services during a dig in 2020.

The team uncovered the cremated remains of a child and three adults, fragments of a decorated clay urn, part of a pin which was carefully carved from a piece of animal bone and the shattered blade of a delicately honed flint knife.

Both the human remains and the objects are now part of the growing archaeology collection at Leeds Discovery Centre, where they will be stored for learning and research, with the urn, needle and knife also going on display to visitors.

Leeds Museums and Galleries curator of archaeology Kat Baxter said: "This is a fascinating discovery which gives us a glimpse into how some of the Early Bronze Age communities in Leeds lived and died.

"It's during this time period that we see cremation, the use of urns and the building of circular monuments like barrows become more common methods of burial as people began to live in more permanent settlements.

"People were coming together as communities, clearly putting in a lot of effort and resources to respect and care for the people they laid to rest.

"These types of sites would most likely have become important places for those early communities, helping them to establish a connection to the area which they could then pass on to future generations."

The excavation in 2020 exposed the partial remains of a barrow, a type of ancient, circular grave made by piling earth and stone to create a burial mound, often surrounded by a ring ditch.

Inside they found four cremation pits grouped together in an area of about two square metres, containing charcoal and the bones of three adults and a child aged between nine and 12.

Radiocarbon dating showed the earliest of the cremations took place in about 1889 -1701 BC.

West Yorkshire Archaeology Advisory Services manager David Williams said: "Discoveries of this nature demonstrate the value of modern developer-funded archaeology.

"Without the planning process, this extraordinary prehistoric monument would have been entirely lost.

"This site offers a fascinating glimpse into the past of a landscape very different to our own, and seeing these excavated objects move into the Leeds collection ensures that the story of Pitty Close Farm is preserved for the public."

The remains of one individual were contained within the fragments of a collared urn, which together with the pin and knife indicate that the person may have been of high status in Early Bronze Age society.

Councillor Salma Arif, Leeds City Council's executive member for economy, said: "It's absolutely incredible to think that people were building communities and establishing roots in Leeds around 4,000 years ago.

"That fact alone gives us a sense of just how much history and heritage is all around us today and what an important and historic place this city is.

"It's fantastic that we are able to be the custodians of this archive and that our visitors will have the chance to learn more about some of the people who, millennia ago, laid the foundations of the city we know today."

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