Monument record MDO45723 - Neolithic inhumation pit, Sixpenny Handley

A pit was discovered and excavated by Pitt Rivers in 1893 while excavating a nearby enclosure. The pit, visible as a slight surface depression, proved to be a maximum of 4.3 feet deep and 8 feet in diameter. The pit filling contained the disarticulated remains of a human skeleton and, lower down, 12 ox bones "laid out as if placed on a flat surface". Pottery recovered by Pitt Rivers from the feature has since been identified as sherds of Early Neolithic bowls, Peterborough Ware and Beaker vessels. Pitt Rivers also referred to finding some Romano-British sherds.

[SU 01171632] In a pit 44 ft to the NW of the enclosure [Dorset 9 SE 22] PITT RIVERS found a disarticulated skeleton at a depth of 2.4 ft and beneath it 12 ox-bones laid out as if on a flat surface. From the top layers of the pit came Early BA sherds and in the pit sufficient sherds of Neolithic A were found to form a round bowl. Other Neolithic sherds were found and it seems almost certain to have been a deliberate Neolithic A burial. <2>

The pit was marked by a slight depression on the surface of not more than 6". It was 4.3 ft deep and 8 ft in diam. [Plotted on OS 6" map from Plan 6" to 1 mile by Pitt Rivers]. <1>

2. This area has been ploughed and is now under young crops. Nothing of significance was found here during fieldwork. <3>

<1> Pitt-Rivers, A H L F, 1898, Excavations in Cranborne Chase near Rushmore on the Borders of Dorset and Wilts 1893-96 Volume IV, 44-9 (Monograph). SDO16623.

<2> 1936, Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society 2, 229-30 (Serial). SDO16732.

Piggott, S. Handley Hill, Dorset - A Neolithic Bowl and the Date of the Entrenchment

<3> Work, R L B, 1954, Field Investigators Comments RLBW, F1 RLBW 07-APR-54 (Unpublished document). SWX3791.

<4> Barrett, J, Bradley, R and Green, M, 1991, Landscape, Monuments and Society: the prehistory of Cranborne Chase, 34 (Monograph). SDO16633.

<5> Barrett J, Bradley R and Hall M, 1991, Papers on the prehistoric archaeology of Cranborne Chase, Volume 11, 134-200 (Monograph). SDO18498.

Cleal, RMJ. Cranborne Chase - The Earlier Prehistoric Pottery

<6> National Record of the Historic Environment, 213515 (Digital archive). SDO14739.

Record last edited

Mar 8 2023 12:00PM