Monument record MDO44597 - Round barrow, Knowlton, Wimborne St Giles

A single small round barrow is visible as a cropmark on aerial photographs. The barrow is associated with the Bronze Age barrow cemetery known as the Knowlton Circles Barrow Group and could be of a similar date. However, its small size suggests that a later date is possible. It was mapped by English Heritage’s Knowlton Circles Project.

SU 0290 1092. A single small round barrow is visible as a cropmark on aerial photographs and has been mapped by EH's Knowlton Circles Project. The barrow is defined by a single circular ditch 7.8m in diameter. Many barrows of similar size appear in the immediate vicinity (SU 01 SW 200, SU 01 SW 190). <1>

The barrow is associated with the Bronze Age barrow cemetery known as the Knowlton Circles Barrow Group (SU 01 SW 52) and could be of similar date. However, its small size suggests that a later date is possible. Very small round barrows have been recorded elsewhere in England in Bronze Age, Iron Age, Roman and Saxon contexts. In particular, in one of the square barrow cemeteries at Garton Slack, on the Yorkshire Wolds, very small round barrows represented a very late phase of the Iron Age burial rite. <2>

<1> National Monuments Record, 13-JUL-1995, NMR SU 0310/10 (NMR 15314/21) (Aerial Photograph). SDO18729.

<2> Catherine Stoertz, 1997, Ancient landscapes of the Yorkshire Wolds:, 33-4 (Monograph). SDO18730.

<3> Historic England, Historic England Archive, Object Number: AF1339047. Object Title: EH: Knowlton Circles, Dorset (Index). SDO14738.

<4> National Record of the Historic Environment, 1409884 (Digital archive). SDO14739.

Record last edited

Nov 7 2022 10:54AM