Monument record MDO6073 - Bronze Age burial on Handley Down, Sixpenny Handley

A burial found during excavations by Pitt-Rivers and described as having no obvious surface marker. A circular grave around 6 feet in diameter contained a skeleton in a crouched position with a beaker pot decorated with fingernail impressions.

Radiocarbon dating by the British Museum of a femur from the skeleton associated with the Beaker produced a result of 3760 +/- 50 BP (BM-2518), which calibrated to 2340-2020 cal BC at 95% confidence. This date was as expected for a mid-carinated finger-nail decorated vessel which date from circa 2300 BC onwards. <4-6>

<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, 60, 114 (Monograph). SDO16623.

<2> Clarke, D L, 1970, Beaker Pottery of Great Britain and Ireland, 479 (Monograph). SDO18289.

<3> Royal Commission on Historical Monuments (England), 1975, An Inventory of Historical Monuments in the County of Dorset, Volume V (East), 70 (Monograph). SDO129.

'(28) BEAKER BURIAL (01201723), on Handley Down, 150 ft. S.W. of Wor Barrow (29), was found by Pitt-Rivers in the course of his examination of the Angle Ditch. A circular grave 6 ft. in diameter and 2½ ft. deep, unmarked by any obvious surface feature, contained a crouched inhumation accompanied by a fingernail-rusticated (Clarke, type FN) beaker. (Pitt-Rivers, Excavations IV (1898), 60, 114; D. L. Clarke, Beaker Pottery of Great Britain (1970), 479, No. 191).'

<4> 1991, Scottish Archaeological Review 8, 35-68 (Serial). SDO18719.

<5> 1992, Radiocarbon; An International Journal of Cosmogenic Isotope Research, 916-27 (Serial). SDO18720.

<6> Prehistoric Society, 2005, Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society 71, 171-217 (Serial). SDO18721.

<7> National Record of the Historic Environment, 213499 (Digital archive). SDO14739.

Record last edited

Mar 8 2023 8:56AM