EDO748 - Hengistbury Head Barrow 5; excavation 1919

Barrow 5 is a small round barrow much disturbed by rabbits and adjacent to Barrow 4. It was excavated by St George Gray in May 1919 (referred to as Mound A) the first of the barrows he excavated on Hengistbury Head. A trench 15.5 m by 5.5m set on a N-S axis was excavated through the mound. Most of this trench was excavated down to the natural. No burial was found. The mound was composed of a layer of loose sandy loam beneath a layer of blackish earth, gravel and burnt flint covered by a layer of topsoil. The barrow sealed a compact sandy loam layer with no gravel, which probably repesents the old ground surface. No earlier prehistoric pottery was found, but a piece of Iron Age pottery was found in an area disturbed by rabbits. About 600 pieces of struck flint were recovered.