Amateur archaeologists uncover Bronze Age grave

Local volunteers have been excavating the site for three years

An ancient monument uncovered by a team of amateur archaeologists is exciting and puzzling the experts.

Three years of excavations on the side of a hill in Aspull, Wigan have revealed a Bronze Age burial site surrounded by a ring shaped ditch that is believed to be a religious henge.

The find is thought to be unique to the region and potentially of national importance.

Archaeologists digging at the site said more analysis would be conducted on the artefacts that had been discovered at the location.

The remains of three cremation urns were found

Digging began after an aerial photograph showed the field had a circular crop mark and further investigations revealed there was a low mound in the centre, indicating a possible ancient barrow or burial site.

A team from Wigan Archaeological Society discovered the cause of the mark was a deep ditch, at least three metres (9.8ft) wide and one and a half metres (4.9ft) deep, with flat bedrock at the bottom.

Bill Aldridge, the society’s secretary, said: “In a bronze age burial site you would never get a ditch this big.

"So we were quite convinced that what we had was more like a henge dating to the Neolithic Stone Age from 4,200 years ago."

Continued excavations have revealed the henge was oval-shaped with a wide gap in the ditch on its west side, thought to have allowed entry to the holy site.

Further digging around the central mound area has uncovered the remains of three cremation urns.

Thirty-five boxes of fragmented bones were removed from the largest pot, which indicate it could have been a family burial urn.

Bill Aldridge says sites of this kind are quite rare in the area

It is hoped one of the urns, which has survived relatively intact, can be removed later this year for further analysis.

The archaeologists working at the site believe it marks two different points in history.

"From the Neolithic Stone Age period it would have been a ritual holy site," Mr Aldridge said.

"But then at a later date, when the Bronze Age people came along, they thought it was something special and decided to create their own funerary monument in the middle of it.

"You do get Bronze Age barrows in the north, but they’re quite rare. You usually find them down south in places like Wiltshire.

"And you have to go to the Lake District, Yorkshire, Derbyshire or North Wales before you get henge monuments or Neolithic Stone Age activity.

"You can find henges all over [England] but you don’t find them in this area so it’s a bit exciting that we’ve got this site in Aspull, so close to Wigan."