Monument record MDO6088 - Bowl Barrow, Sixpenny Handley

A bowl barrow recorded as being around 40 feet in diameter with a mound 3 feet high. This monument was excavated by General Pitt-Rivers, who recorded a crouched burial thought to be the primary burial within the barrow. The skeleton was thought probably to be male, and wooden or shale object near the hip was identified as a belt slider. Fragments of a second skeleton were found near the centre of the mound.

A later Neolithic round barrow located immediately south east of Wor Barrow (SU 01 NW 14). The site was briefly examined by Colt Hoare in the early 19th century and more thoroughly examined by Pitt Rivers in 1894. Prior to the latter's excavtion, the mound appears to have been circa 0.90 metres high, and was surrounded by a ditch 13 metres in diameter, and featuring a causeway on the western side, broadly facing the causeway at the southeastern end of Wor Barrow. Pitt Rivers states that fragments of a skeleton were found at the centre of the barrow lying on a heap of flint nodules. He also refers to a crouched skeleton being found 8.5 feet west of the centre and 1 foot beneath the surface (of the mound, presumably). This was accompanied by a jet slider. Sherds of Mortlake ware were found at the bottom of the ditch and below the mound, while Beaker sherds and Collared Urn sherds were also found. Hoare's excavations were less successful. He cited disturbance to both this and the other nearby round barrow SU 01 NW 13 by a boundary ditch as a reason for the poverty of finds, but he did note fragments of human bones intermixed with soil. <1-3, 5>

This is probably the Neolithic round barrow listed by Kinnes as Handley 26 at SU 013 173. This is described as a round barrow comprising of chalk rubble from the penannular quarry ditch with 1 central adult burial, possibly disarticulated, and 1 adult burial to the west accompanied by a jet slider. Mortlake sherds found in the basal ditch fill. <6>

<1> Colt Hoare, Sir Richard, 1975, The ancient history of Wiltshire, 242 (Monograph). SDO18077.

<2> Pitt-Rivers, A H L F, 1898, Excavations in Cranborne Chase near Rushmore on the Borders of Dorset and Wilts 1893-96 Volume IV, 58-61, 136-42 (Monograph). SDO16623.

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

Primary crouched (male?) interment with wooden or shale slider near hip

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

(SU 01281726) 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.

Bowl 40 ft in diameter and 3ft high , covered a crouched interment, probably primary and accompanied by a belt 'slider' of shale. Framgments of a second skeleton were found near the centre (Pitt-Rivers, Excavations IV, 58-61, 140-1)

<6> Kinnes, I, 1979, Round barrows and ring-ditches in the British Neolithic, 17, no 7 (Monograph). SDO18417.

<7> Barrett, J, Bradley, R and Green, M, 1991, Landscape, Monuments and Society: the prehistory of Cranborne Chase, 84-7 (Monograph). SDO16633.

<8> National Record of the Historic Environment, 213498 (Digital archive). SDO14739.

Record last edited

Jan 22 2025 3:51PM