SDO12382 - Scheduled Monument SM 29061, Binnegar Quarry, East Stoke, Dorset. An archaeological excavation

‘Context One Archaeological Services Ltd. (COAS) carried out an archaeological excavation of a Scheduled round barrow (SM 29061) at Binnegar Quarry, East Stoke, Dorset (centred on NGR SY 89272 87740) (hereafter referred to as the Site) in October and November 2006. The project was commissioned and funded by RPS Planning, Transportation and Environment on behalf of their clients SITA Holdings Limited. The excavation represents the final stage of a programme of archaeological works, which included a geophysical survey and an archaeological trench evaluation undertaken in 2002, the latter of which confirmed the location of the ring ditch of the barrow. The excavation was requested by Dorset County Council on the advice of their Senior Archaeologist, Steven Wallis, as a condition of granting planning permission for the development works. The archaeological excavation was monitored by Mr. Wallis and by English Heritage’s Vanessa Straker (Regional Science Advisor) and Phil McMahon (Inspector of Ancient Monuments). The excavation established that an uninterrupted ring ditch had been cut into the underlying natural horizon of periglacial sands and gravels. A vestige of the barrow mound was noted during the archaeological evaluation, where a layer of dark humic soil was thought to have formed part of the original turf construction. Prior to the excavation, un-monitored soil stripping operations undertaken by the quarry operators had inadvertently removed all trace of the mound and any cremation or inhumation burials that may have been associated with it. A modern drainage channel was also found to bisect the barrow. During the excavation the ring ditch was equally divided around its circumference into seventeen 1m wide sections. The excavation of these demonstrated that the ditch had undergone at least three distinctive phases of silting through wind and water action. This comprised some initial collapse of the ditch sides and silting shortly after the ditch had been cut, followed by two further stages of infilling and silting. Some of the slots excavated were seen to contain a distinct gravelly horizon, possibly representing the slippage of a former gravel capping to the mound. Mounds of turf-stack construction with a capping of bedrock material seem to have been particularly popular in Dorset during the early and middle Bronze Age. Bulk soil samples were taken from the ring ditch fills and a central pit feature. The primary and secondary fill samples produced only one plant macrofossil (derived from a species of heather), while the tertiary fill samples produced no plant macrofossils. Five monolith column samples were taken by Dr. Scaife (Southampton University) from ditch sections during the course of the excavation. The pollen retrieved from the lower fills demonstrated that the barrow was constructed in a heathland landscape, with areas of transitional woodland including oak and hazel. The vegetation of the area had been highly influenced by human activity, with woodland clearance leading to the deterioration of the soils and development of heathland, which would have been maintained by fire and grazing. There is also evidence that arable cultivation was being undertaken nearby. The upper, tertiary, fill of the ditch probably derived from heath vegetation and detritus washed or blown into the ditch while it still remained as a hollow on the ground surface. Radiocarbon dating of charcoal recovered from the tertiary fills of two excavated slots produced calibrated dates lying within the late Bronze Age to early Iron Age and the middle Iron Age. The evidence suggests that the barrow had been constructed with a core of stacked turves and that a gravel capping was deposited on its surface, similar to the make-up of a barrow in the nearby Worgret Heath Group. The construction of the barrow probably took place during the early to middle Bronze Age, after initial deforestion and the evolution of heathland in the area. The results of the radiocarbon analysis show that the ditch was no longer being maintained by the middle Iron Age. Apart from the ring ditch, only one other feature was encountered during the excavation and this comprised a pit located in the central area of the barrow. Evidence of grooved marks at the base of the pit, and the presence of non-native fir pollen, suggests that this may have been excavated in recent times by a mechanical toothed digging bucket.’