Monument record MDO4372 - Deverel Barrow, Milborne St Andrew

A round barrow recorded as being almost 14 metres in diameter and over 4 metres high before it was excavated in 1824. The excavators found a semi-circle of sarsen stones and a number of cremation burials. The site of the barrow is now inside a circular stone wall.

SY 81999900 Deverel Barrow was excavated by W A Miles in 1824 when it measured 54 ft diameter and 12 ft high. Within the mound and resting on the old ground surface was a semi-circle of sarsen stones. Each of these stones, with the exception of the two largest, covered cists cut into the chalk, containing, in total, some seventeen cremations in globular and bucket urns set upright. Near the largest sarsen stone lay a cremation, possibly primary, in an inverted collared urn surrounded by flints. On the barrow floor were four more cremations in globular and bucket urns as well as four unaccompanied cremations. Five more chalk-cut cists containing cremation only, were also seen. The globular and bucket urns and cremation ritual found within Deverel Barrow represented a culture phase within the Late Bronze Age period, now known as the Deverel-Rimbury culture (for Rimbury urnfield - see SY 68 SE 35). Deverel Barrow is now almost entirely destroyed but its site is marked by a circular walled enclosure planted with trees. Inside, the only remains are a number of large stones on a slight mound. An inscribed stone recording the excavation was set up in 1827 but this is now fragmented. <4> <7-8> The site of Deverel Barrow is as described by RCHM <7-8> except that the inscribed stone fragments cannot now be identified. <9>

Record last edited

Mar 3 2023 7:04PM