Excvations at the Litten medieval cemetery, Newbury, Berkshire

Archaeological excavation took place in Newbury in an area known as the ‘Litten’ in summer 2004 by Oxford Archaeology (Fig 1). Work revealed 59 graves from the hospital cemetery of St Bartholomew, which dates from the early 13th century to the middle of the 16th century. The osteological potential of this assemblage is considerable and initial analysis shows that it offers a unique insight into a particular social group of the medieval town. It also provides a valuable addition to the growing corpus of skeletal assemblages known from medieval hospital sites in Britain.