Monument record MDO6084 - Bowl barrow, Sixpenny Handley

A bowl barrow reported as being around 50 feet in diameter with a mound around 2 feet high. Excavations by Pitt-Rivers revealed that the barrow covered a central pit containing a cremation, and that two later cremations in urns had been inserted into the mound.

A bowl barrow on Handley Hill, listed by RCHME as Sixpenny Handley 36 and by Grinsell as Handley 23. It was described by RCHME as a plough-reduced mound circa 50 feet in diameter and 2 feet high, surrounded completely by a ditch. The latter was discovered during excavation by Pitt Rivers in August 1893 (his barrow 23). AT the centre was a cremation in a circular pit 2 feet in diameter and 2.3 feet deep. Two secondary cremations, both accompanied by collared urns, were found. A crouched inhumation, also asumed to be secondary, was accompanied by a bronze awl placed against the top of its skull. <5>

<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, 144-60 (Monograph). SDO16623.

<2> Grinsell, L V, 1959, Dorset Barrows, 114 (Monograph). SDO132.

<3> Royal Commission on Historical Monuments (England), 1975, An Inventory of Historical Monuments in the County of Dorset, Volume V (East), 71 (Monograph). SDO129.

‘(36) Bowl (01021653), about 50 ft. in diameter within the ditch and 2 ft. high, covered a cremation, probably primary, in a central pit and two secondary cremations in collared urns. A secondary, crouched, inhumation with a bronze awl was also found. (Pitt-Rivers, Excavations IV (1898), 144-7.)’

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

(Centred SU 01061651) Tumulus (NR) (Site of) (NAT) Tumulus (NR)

<5> National Record of the Historic Environment, 213508 (Digital archive). SDO14739.

Record last edited

Mar 8 2023 12:19PM