Monument record MDO8376 - Bowl Barrow on St Aldhelm's Head, Worth Matravers

A bowl barrow reported in 1970 to be around 41 feet in diameter with a mound about 5 feet high. In 1850 this barrow was excavated by Austen, who found seven or eight burials with finds including a bone pin, a green glass bead, Romano-British pottery and coins, and shale fragments. Interpreted as original burials in stone-lined cist, with later burials inserted into the mound.

Opened by J H Austen, primary and subsequent primary inhumations, mostly in disorder, 5 or 6 in all, one with bone pin, another with pottery vessel (perhaps a Bi beaker). A green glass (?) bead was also found at the level of the skeletons, Samian sherd and 5 AE3 coins near top.

<1> Grinsell, L V, 1959, Dorset Barrows (Monograph). SDO132.

<2> Royal Commission on Historical Monuments (England), 1970, An Inventory of Historical Monuments in the County of Dorset, Volume II (South East) Part 3, 474 (Monograph). SDO150.

<3> Papworth, M D J, Trust for Wessex Archaeology, 1983, Isle of Purbeck Survey, IOP 266, 578 (Index). SDO147.

‘Barrow, diam. 12.5m and ht. 1.5m. On permanent pasture on the edge of asteep slope leading down to a dry coombe. Immediately S.E. of the monument beyond a fence is aregularly ploughed field. The mound has been covered by rough grass and has been damaged by the excavation 1850. RAF/VAP/1821: 1396. OS SY97NE19. 7/7/D.’

Record last edited

Sep 20 2018 4:31PM