Monument record MDO6098 - Bowl Barrow one of the Scrubbity Barrows, Sixpenny Handley

A bowl barrow excavated by Pitt-Rivers who found that the mound covered an inverted collared urn and a long pit, possibly an unused grave. In 1975 the barrow was described as an earthwork around 37 feet in diameter with a mound 2 feet high.

A bowl barrow in Scrubbity Coppice, one of a group excavated by Pitt Rivers in 1882-83. Pitt Rivers' barrow xvi (RCHME's Sixpenny Handley 49. Grinsell's Handley 8), it was excavated on April 2nd 1883. Adjacent to ST 91 NE 99, prior to excavation it was visible as a mound 36 feet in diameter and up to 1.5 feet high. The mound comprised earth and flints, and beneath it, in its northwest sector, was what Pitt Rivers described as a "large depression" cut into the chalk to a depth of around 12 inches. Rather irregular inshape, at one end was a Collared Urn inverted over a cremation deposit close to a "hole" (ie small pit or post hole). Over 200 flints, mostly flakes and cores, were found in the mound. [NB this site was originally described as part of ST 91 NE 17. That record should be consulted for some additional sources and information] <4>

<1> Pitt Rivers, A H L F, 1888, Excavations in Barrows near Rushmore. Excavations in the Romano-British village Rotherly. Excavations in Cranborne Chase vol II Rushmore, 3-5, 32-44 (Monograph). SDO16665.

<2> Grinsell, L V, 1959, Dorset Barrows, 113 (Monograph). SDO132.

<3> Royal Commission on Historical Monuments (England), 1972, An Inventory of Historical Monuments in the County of Dorset, Volume IV (North), 72 (Monograph). SDO99.

‘Twenty-seven round barrows, several damaged or levelled by ploughing, have been recorded in the parish. Many have been excavated, most of them by General Pitt-Rivers, but very few completely. Pitt-Rivers reconstituted the barrows which he dug. … Scrubbity Barrows (43-50), a group of eight, lie on the S.W. slope of a dry valley in woodland between Woodcutts Common and Handley Common; all were excavated, but most only partially, by Pitt-Rivers (Excavations II (1888), 3-5, 32-44). … (49) Bowl (97171790), (Pitt-Rivers xvi) covered a cremation in an inverted collared urn which lay beside a long pit, possibly an unused grave. Diam. 37 ft., ht. 1½ ft.’

<4> National Record of the Historic Environment, 1310964 (Digital archive). SDO14739.

Record last edited

Sep 12 2024 11:02AM