Monument record MDO6077 - Round barrow on Gussage Hill, Sixpenny Handley

A barrow close to the edge of the Iron Age/Romano-British settlement on Gussage Hill. The barrow is reported as around 30 feet in diameter with a mound about 1½ feet high, having been much reduced by ploughing. Excavations in 1969 showed that the mound covered the remains of a cremation pyre with fragments of human bone and pottery of late Iron Age or early Romano-British type, and a flint scatter. The mound lay inside a ditch enclosing an area that was almost square with sides about 50 feet long.

A probable Late Iron Age circular barrow mound within a small square ditched enclosure, located on the north slope of Gussage Hill, immediately adjacent to the multiple ditched system ST 91 SE 3. The site was excavated in 1969, by which time the mound had been reduced to just 18 inches in height, having been recorded previously by Grinsell as being 3.5 feet high. The mound appears to have been circa 29 feet in diameter originally. A large oval shaped pit had been dug through the centre of the mound and the underlying pre-mound soil and into the chalk bedrock, and presumably represents an unrecorded excavation. Beneath the centre of the mound, an area of about 10 feet square of the original ground surface was covered with cremated human bone, ash and charcoal. The distribution of the bone fragments suggests possible scattering after cremation rather than later disturbance. Some potsherds of late Iron Age-early Roman type, partly burnt, were also present as was a portion of a sheep's mandible. Earlier activity was represented by a concentration of around 500 flint flakes which appeared to be clustered beside a tree-throw hole. Two small Beaker sherds were also found, although these need not be contemporary with the flints. The ditch surrounding the barrow mound was almost square, with sides circa 50 feet long. The centre of the enclosed area was roughly the centre of the barrow mound. Finds from the ditch were few, though an early Roman bead and potsherd were found in the primary silts. The excavator considered that the barrow was probably later than the adjacent linear features.

(ST 98891442) Tumulus (NR). <1>

Colt Hoare's plan shows another mound a little way to the W of the above. <3>

ST 98881443. Square enclosure Diameter 9m, height 0.5m, legth of side 15m. Excavated (White 1970), not precisely square; clear space between mound and ditch. E side aligned just E of N. <5, 6>

<1> Ordnance Survey, Ordnance Survey map 6 inches to 1 mile, 1963 (Map). SDO11924.

<2> Society of Antiquaries of London, 1970, The Antiquaries Journal 50, Volume 50, p26-36. White, DA. The Excavation of an Iron Age Round Barrow near Handley, Dorset, 1969. (Serial). SDO16776.

<3> Colt Hoare, Sir Richard, 1975, The ancient history of Wiltshire, (North 2 1821 plan between pages 30-31) (Monograph). SDO18077.

<4> Royal Commission on Historical Monuments (England), 1975, An Inventory of Historical Monuments in the County of Dorset, Volume V (East), p71 (Monograph). SDO129.

'(30) Barrow, probably Iron Age (98901443), on the N. Slope of Gussage Hill, was removed by excavation in 1969. It lay immediately adjacent to the boundary dyke of the Iron Age and Romano-British Settlement, Gussage St Michael (7). The mound, originally about 30 ft. in diameter, had been dug into in the past and was reduced by ploughing to 1½ ft. in height. It covered the remains of a cremation pyre among which were fragments of human bone and sherds of a pot of late Iron Age or early Romano-British type. A flint scatter was also found. The mound lay within a ditch, 4 ft. to 6 ft. wide and 2 ft. deep, almost square in plan with sides about 50 ft. in length. The S. side was parallel to and probably later than the boundary dyke (Ant. J., L (1970), 26-36).'

<5> Bowen, H C, 1990, The Archaeology of Bokerley Dyke, 86. Sixpenny Handley 30 (Monograph). SWX800.

<6> Bowen, H C, 1991, The Archaeology of Bokerley Dyke: Inventory, 23. Sixpenny Handley 30 (Monograph). SDO14864.

<7> Barrett, J, Bradley, R and Green, M, 1991, Landscape, Monuments and Society: the prehistory of Cranborne Chase, p227-242 (Monograph). SDO16633.

<8> National Record of the Historic Environment, 210004 (Digital archive). SDO14739.

Record last edited

Oct 13 2022 10:01AM