EDO6162 - Scheduled Monument SM 29061, Binnegar Quarry, East Stoke; excavation 2006

Excavation in advance of mineral extraction revealed the remains of the barrow ditch cut into underlying natural sands and gravels. The ditch was uninterrupted and had undergone at least three phases of natural silting. A gravelly horizon within the filling of the ditch was thought to represent a slippage of the former gravel capping of the mound of the barrow; similar barrows in the nearby Worgret Heath Group are thought to have been constructed as a turf stacked mound with a similar gravel capping. Material suitable for radiocarbon dating was recovered from the tertiary filling of the ditch, and this returned two clear dates, one Late Bronze Age to Early Iron Age and the other Middle Iron Age, suggesting that the sides of the ditch were stable by the Iron Age and the barrow was a distinct earthwork. Pollen analysis showed that the barrow was probably constructed in a heathland landscape with some areas of transitional woodland including oak and hazel.