Monument record MDO6085 - Bowl barrow, Handley Hill, Sixpenny Handley

A bowl barrow described as a low mound about 23 feet across and surrounded by a small ditch with a causeway on the south-west side. This monument was excavated by Pitt-Rivers, who recorded three pits beneath the mound; two of these he interpreted as unoccupied graves. Subsequently the mound was the focus of a cremation cemetery.

A bowl barrow on Handley Hill. Described by RCHME as a low mound circa 23 feet across surrounded by a small penannular ditch with a causeway on the south west side, it was excavated by Pitt Rivers in 1893. Beneath the mound were 3 hollows cut into the chalk. Pitt Rivers regarded two of them as empty graves. Their fill contained a single small ox bone and a sherd of pottery. 8 further "coarse" sherds were found immediately above one of these features. Their date is unclear. They may be of Bronze Age date. However, a sherd of Neolithic Mortlake Ware was also found on the chalk surface beneath the mound. … [NGD note 27-02-23: The following NRHE-to-HER database information from NRHE 1312842 regarding the cremation cemetery is recorded separately as MDO6086 but is also included below to explain its relationship with bowl barrow MDO6085]. … Subsequently the mound was the focus of a cremation cemetery. Burials - more than 50 in all - may have begun in the Early Bronze Age, judging by the presence of one associated with bone tweezers and covered by an inverted collared urn. The overwhelming majority of associations were, however, with Deverel-Rimbury vessels. One was also associated with fragments of twisted bronze. Unburnt animal bones were present in six of the cremations. Most of the cremations were deposited outside the ditch to the west, while a smaller number were scattered to the south and east. During John Barrett and Richard Bradley's research programme focused on Cranborne Chase, the site was re-examined and the sequence and structure of burial activity analysed. In the process a series of radiocarbon dates were obtained on surviving charcoal samples from Pitt Rivers excavations. However, all dates were obtained during a period when the British Museum's radiocarbon dating results incorporated a systematic error. Only one sample was subsequently available for re-dating, some charcoal from one of the cremations deposits. The date obtained simply confirms the Middle Bronze Age date of the cremation deposit. NB this site was originally recorded as part of SU 01 NW 23.

<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, 144-70 (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.

‘(37) Bowl barrow and Urnfield (00991655), 50 yds. N.W. of (36), comprised a low mound about 23 ft. across surrounded by a small penannular ditch with a causeway on the S.W. side. Beneath the mound were three pits, two interpreted as unoccupied graves. Immediately S.W. of the barrow some fifty-two cremations were discovered, nearly all in urns. Barrel urns were most common, but a few globular urns and one collared urn were also present. (Pitt-Rivers, Excavations IV (1898), 147-57; Arch. J., CXIX (1962), 54-56.)’

<4> Barrett, J, Bradley, R and Green, M, 1991, Landscape, Monuments and Society: the prehistory of Cranborne Chase, 214-9 (Monograph). SDO16633.

<5> National Record of the Historic Environment, 1312842 (Digital archive). SDO14739.

Record last edited

Mar 8 2023 12:12PM