Monument record MDO47871 - Small round barrows, Woodlands

At least seventeen very small round barrows, visible as cropmarks on aerial photographs, have been recorded within the southern part of the Knowlton Circles Barrow Group. The barrows appear to have been placed between existing Bronze Age mounds, and could be of similar date. However, their small size suggests that a later date is possible.

SU 0215 0955. At least seventeen very small round barrows are visible as cropmarks within the southern part of the Knowlton Circles Barrow Group, and have been mapped from aerial photographs by EH's Knowlton Circles Project. The diameters of the small barrows range between 7.3m and 15m. The majority are arranged in a close group from SU 0210 0950 - SU 0217 0967, and all appear to have been inserted into spaces between larger Bronze Age barrows.

The date of these barrows is uncertain. Very small round barrows have been recorded elsewhere in England in Bronze Age, Iron Age, Roman and Saxon contexts. Support for a post-Bronze Age date at Knowlton may perhaps be derived from the presence in the vicinity of possible Iron Age square barrows (SU 00NW 98, SU 00 NW 99): 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. <1>

<1> Stoertz, Cathy, 2005, Knowlton Circles Project, Dorset: report on the aerial photographic transcription and analysis, 33-34 (Monograph). SDO19585.

<1.1> Boyden, J R, 02/07/76, NMR SU 0209/8/3 (JRB 3097/3 (Aerial Photograph). SDO19487.

<1.2> 06-SEP-1989, NMR SU 0209/28-9 (NMR 4554/49-50) (Aerial Photograph). SDO19488.

<1.3> 06-SEP-1989, NMR SU 0209/17 (NMR 4554/36) (Aerial Photograph). SDO19479.

<2> National Record of the Historic Environment, 1409639 (Digital archive). SDO14739.

Record last edited

Mar 14 2024 1:13PM