Monument record MDO1273 - Disc barrow in the Black Down Group, Kingston Russell

Part of a group of barrows between the 500 and 600ft. contours on or near the top of a ridge to the W. of Black Down. 75ft. in diam overall, the central mound is 30ft. in diam and 2.5ft. high. The bank has been much worn down and there is no definite trace of a ditch. <1>

A disc barrow with Beaker inhumation, part of a loose scatter of barrows. Listed by RCHME as Kingston Russell 6g and by Grinsell as Kingston Russell 3a, the barrow was excavated in 1971. Previously, the Ordnance Syrvey had recorded it as a mound 9 metres in diameter and 0.7 metres high, surrounded by a berm 5 metres across, then a bank 2 metres wide and 0.1 metre high. However, by the time of excavation the bank had been completely removed by cultivation and the mound also reduced in height. Excxvation revealed only slight traces of the bank, although the absence of a corresponding ditch and the presence of concentrations of flint imply that the bank may have been constructed of flint. The centralprimary mound appears originally to have been 6 metres in diameter, surrounded by a ditch. It was subsequently enlarged to 7.5 metres in diameter, and surrounded by another ditch. This outer ditch appeared to have a causeway on the south side. The mound sealed a central grave pit containing a flexed female inhumation beside a parallel line of large flints. Overlying the skeleton was the headless contracted inhumation of a child. A third individual was represented by scattered bones, including some beneath the line of flints. A Beaker is presumed to have been associated with this last, presumably disturbed inhumation. Futher secondary inhumations included an infant with a food vessel in a rectangular grave, and a contracted child in a recatngular grave. 3 intrusive cremations were associated with Deverel-Rimbury urns. Further finds include potsherd, traces of cremated material, a Neolithic flint axehead and a flint barbed and tanged arrowhead. <1-7>

A Bronze Age disc barrow on the south-west end of Black Down. The site is visible as earthworks on aerial photographs. <9>

<1> Royal Commission on Historical Monuments England, 1952, An Inventory of Historical Monuments in the County of Dorset, Volume I (West), 128 (Monograph). SDO97.

<2> Quinnell, N V, Various, Field Investigators Comments NVQ, F1 NVQ 03-MAY-1955 (Unpublished document). SDO11903.

<3> Grinsell, L V, 1959, Dorset Barrows, 115 (Monograph). SDO132.

<4> Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society, 1972, Proceedings of the Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society for 1971, 133 (Serial). SDO71.

<5> Bailey, C J, 1980, Excavation of three round barrows in the parish of Kingston Russell; Proceedings of the Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society (Article in serial). SDO18030.

<6> Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society, 1982, Proceedings of the Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society for 1980, 19-25 (Serial). SDO80.

<7> Grinsell, L V, 1982, Dorset Barrows Supplement, 62 (Monograph). SWX1703.

<8> Papworth, M, 1983, The South Dorset Ridgeway Project: condition and management survey, SDR 22 (Index). SDO12304.

No longer visible. 7/7/E

<9> 02-APR-1969, NMR OS/69053 004-5 (Aerial Photograph). SDO11126.

<10> Wessex Archaeology, 2011, South Dorset Ridgeway Barrow Survey 2010 (Unpublished document). SDO12407.

<11> National Record of the Historic Environment, 1316221 (Digital archive). SDO14739.

Record last edited

Jul 20 2023 3:38PM