Monument record MDO1145 - Bowl barrow, Frampton, destroyed 1938

Bowl barrow, excavated before destruction for road widening in 1938.

(SY 63619481) Tumuli [NR] (sites of) [NAT] (1) One of two Bronze Age round barrows in Long Plantation which was excavated in 1938 prior to destruction by road widening. Barrow No 2 SY 63619481. A bowl barrow, no dimensions given, was excavated by K C Selby and G Kirk in 1938. The construction sequence appears to have been: Primary Phase. An oval chalk-cut grave containing a crouched inhumation had been constructed central to an enclosing ditch; just within the bounds of this ditch, the fragmentary remains of an infant were recovered. Covering the central grave and burial was a small chalk mound which had been disturbed by a secondary grave, dug into the old ground surface. Within the grave were many fragments of human remains and sherds of an 'A' type beaker, which probably represented another primary burial (disturbed). Secondary Phase. The main burial within the above grave was a secondary crouched inhumation together with a bronze square-shafted awl and a mas of carbonised wood. A flint capping had been added to the original chalk mound, sealing this secondary burial. A contracted burial together with a small food vessel and a crouched burial with no grave goods had been inserted into the primary mound at a later date; layers of clay, flint and chalk were subsequently added and an outer ditch constructed. Within these later layers of the mound were three cremation deposits; one contained within an inverted food vessel urn another associated with six blue faience beads and a broken food vessel urn and the third in an inverted, bipartite urn of overhanging rim type. A crouched inhumation near the top of the mound was perhaps an Early Iron Age/Romano-British or pagan Saxon intrusive burial according to Grinsell. Finds from this barrow were deposited in Dorset County Museum Acc No 1938.87. The burials represented a considerable period of use, from Early Bronze Age to the beginning of the Late Bronze Age. The only evidence for dating in actual years was provided by the faience beads which suggested a date of around 1400 BC for the cremation with which they were associated. (2-3) This barrow has been entirely removed. (4) Photographs of the excavation of barrow (5)

Record last edited

Mar 18 2022 2:44PM