Monument record MDO5537 - Bell barrow, Edmondsham

Bell barrow much flattened by ploughing. Excavations in 1959 revealed a single cremation burial with associated grave goods including the remains of a bronze dagger, a whetstone and a bone pin and tweezers. The barrow is visible as a slightly irregular sub-circular cropmark on an 1989 aerial photograph. The feature was digitally plotted by the Dorset Stour NMP project.

A bell barrow located just outside St Giles's Park. Prior to excavation in 1959 it had been regarded as a bowl barrow. Excavation occurred because of the severe damage being caused by ploughing (compare with its near neighbour SU 01 SW 30 which, surrounded by woodland, survives to a height of 11 feet). Excavation showed the barrow to comprise a mound 62 feet in diameter, separated by a wide berm from a near-circular ditch 90 feet in internal diameter and 5 feet wide. The mound comprised a stacked turf core covered by a chalk capping, and had been truncated by ploughing, standing just 21 inches high. Beneath the mound, in the north east sector, were the remains of a probable funeral pyre, comprising a small heap of charcoal, ashes and burnt bones up to 3.5 feet across, though reddening of the underlying soil extended over an area circa 12 feet in diameter. Adjacent to the pyre was a large sub-rectangular pit 5 feet by 3 feet, and 18 inches deep. On the base of this had been placed the cremated remains of a young adult male in a neat ash-free pile. Some of the bone fragments conjoined with pieces recovered from the nearby pyre. A bronze dagger had been placed on top of the cremation deposit. At the time of its discovery, traces of its sheath and hilt were still extant but did not prove possible to preserve. An unburnt whetstone was among the cremated bones. Nearby was a bone pin and some broken bone tweezers. Cremated bone subsequently produced an uncalibrated radiocarbon date of 1119 +/-45 BC, while charcoal from the pyre was dated to 1527 +/-52 BC (again uncalibrated). The only other finds recovered during the excavations were some small Beaker sherds from the mound and buried soil, some animal bones from the mound, a few flint flakes from the ditch and some sherds of Roman pottery. [NB this barrow was originally recorded as part of SU 01 SW 30]

The barrow is visible as a slightly irregular sub-circular cropmark 23.5m by 19.6m on an 1989 aerial photograph <7>. There is a suggestion of an outer ditch, up to 2.7m wide. The feature was digitally plotted by the Dorset Stour NMP project.

<1> Grinsell, L V, 1959, Dorset Barrows, 108 (Monograph). SDO132.

<2> 1963, Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society 29, 395-425 (Serial). SDO16722.

<3> 1969, Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society 26 (Serial). SDO16723.

<4> Royal Commission on Historical Monuments (England), 1975, An Inventory of Historical Monuments in the County of Dorset, Volume V (East), 18 (Monograph). SDO129.

'(16) BELL BARROW (04641160), now largely flattened by ploughing, lies 45 yds. N.E. of (15). When excavated in 1959 a single cremation burial was found in a grave cut into the Chalk, with the remains of a funeral pyre beside it. Associated with the burial were artefacts of Wessex Culture type, an ogival bronze dagger, a large perforated whetstone, and remains of bone tweezers and of a decorated bone pin. (P.P.S., XXIX, n.s. (1963), 395-425). Diam. Of mound 62 ft., width of berm 14 ft.; ditch 5ft. Across and 4 ft. deep.'

<5> Gerloff, Sabine, 1975, The early Bronze Age daggers in Great Britain, and a reconsideration of the Wessex culture (Monograph). SDO18691.

<6> Grinsell, L V, 1982, Dorset Barrows Supplement, 15, 39, 61 (Monograph). SWX1703.

<7> Ordnance Survey, 05-MAY-89, OS89135 V 284-5 (Aerial Photograph). SDO15761.

<8> National Record of the Historic Environment, 1309607 (Digital archive). SDO14739.

Record last edited

Oct 20 2022 11:05AM