Monument record MDO6078 - Bowl barrow, associated with the Thorneydown Farm Group, Sixpenny Handley

A barrow excavated in 1898 by Pitt-Rivers, who found a primary cremation with bone needle, burnt flint flakes, and burnt flint knife, beneath inverted Early/Middle Bronze Age collared urn in central cist. He also found three intrusive contracted skeletons, possibly Romano-British, in the upper levels of the filling of the ditch around the barrow. After excavation, Pitt-Rivers reconstructed the barrow.

Grass-covered ditchless bowl barrow cut into by the road. It is 34.0m in diameter by 1.2m high. <2>

Bowl barrow excavated by General Pitt-Rivers. The mound, 70ft in diameter and 2 1/2ft high, covered a central cist in which was found a primary cremation with a bone needle, and a burnt flint knife and flakes, in an inverted Collared Urn. In its upper levels the encircling ditch contained Romano-British burials probably of the same period. (Pitt-Rivers reconstituted the barrows which he dug). <5>

A bowl barrow completely excavated by Pitt Rivers and subsequently reconstructed by him. Pitt Rivers' barrow 29 (RCHME's Sixpenny Handley 31, Grinsell's Handley 29) is partly cut by the northern side of the A354. The mound, circa 70 feet in diameter and 2.5 feet high was shown by excavation to be surrounded by a ditch averaging circa 7 feet wide and nearly 5 feet deep. Roughly beneath the centre of the mound was a pit 3.8 feet deep and 2.3 feet wide at the top. Inside was an inverted Collared Urn containing a cremation accompanied by a bone needle or pin, 2 burnt flint flakes and a burnt flint knife. Other flints, including scrapers, and potsherds (1 possible Beaker) occurred in the body of the mound and in the ditch fill. In the northeast sector of the ditch were three contracted inhumations, 2 together and the third nearby. Pitt Rivers argued that they were Romano-British in date but this is highly speculative. His reasons include their depth within the ditch silts (3 feet above the bottom), and the fact that the bulk of the Bronze Age pottery occurred in the lower and middle ditch silts, while the upper fill contained Romano-British pottery. However, his schematic ditch sections show the Roman sherds to occur consistently above the levels at which the inhumations occurred. In the absence of a proper stratigraphic record, a Roman date is only a possibility rather than a certainty for these skeletons. <7>

<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, 172-184 (Monograph). SDO16623.

<2> Schofield, Gillian, Field investigator's comments GS, F1 GS 20-JAN-54 (Unpublished document). SDO18391.

<3> Grinsell, L V, 1959, Dorset Barrows, 114 (Monograph). SDO132.

<4> Ordnance Survey, Ordnance Survey Map 6in, 1963 (Map). SWX1540.

(ST 99881532) Tumulus (NR)

<5> Royal Commission on Historical Monuments (England), 1975, An Inventory of Historical Monuments in the County of Dorset, Volume V (East), 71 (Monograph). SDO129.

'(31) Bowl (99891533), was excavated by Pitt-Rivers (Excavations IV (1898), 172-81). The mound, 70 ft. in diameter and 2½ ft. high, covered a central cist in which was found a primary cremation, with a bone needle, a burnt flint knife and flakes, in an inverted collared urn (P.P.S., XXVII (1961), 294). In its upper levels the encircling ditch contained Romano-British pottery and three intrusive burials, probably of the same period.'

<6> Longworth, I H, 1984, Collared Urns of the Bronze Age in Great Britain and Ireland (Monograph). SWX9167.

<7> National Record of the Historic Environment, 209771 (Digital archive). SDO14739.

Record last edited

Nov 16 2022 12:07PM