Monument record MDO1280 - Barrow in the Black Down Group, Kingston Russell

Excavated, primary cremation in collared urn covered by small flint cairn, to East of barrow was a cremation cemetery of 5 token deposits in small holes, and a contracted inhumation of a child with a miniature biconical urn, the child's feet had been cut off before burial and were missing. <3> A probable bowl barrow, part of a loose scatter of barrows (see SY 59 SE 48 and associated monuments). The barrow was not initially noted by either RCHME or Grinsell. It was included by RCHME in a subsequent discussion of the Ridgeway barrow group, listed as Kingston Russell 6n and described as a ditched bowl barrow 18 metres in diameter. The site was excavated in circa 1973 in an attempt to (a) confirm the presence of a barrow, and (b) clarify the relationship between the suggested barrow and the junction of linear features immediately adjacent to it. The excavations uncovered what appear to be the remains of a plough-levelled mound, represented by scattered flints over an area circa 8 metres in diameter. There was no trace of a ditch, earlier reports of one possibly relating to misidentification of the linear ditch junction. Beneath the centre of this remnant mound was a chalk-cut pit containing a cremation in a cord-decorated urn. The mound also concealed another chalk-cut pit with cremation and potsherds, and a stakehole. Immediately east of the barrow was a cluster of pits which appeard to group around a grave containing a crouched child inhumation. The skeleton lacked feet, but was accompanied by a small biconical vessel. The other pits were all heavily plough-damaged, but a few contained evidence of cremations and potsherds. One isolated cremation deposit occurred northwest of the mound. Little of the pottery is particularly diagnostic, but appears likely to belong to the early to middle Bronze Age. (1-3) This site was originally described as part of SY 59 SE 48. That record should be consulted for additional sources and details. <6>

Record last edited

Jun 1 2022 12:36PM