Monument record MDO5818 - Bowl barrow, Long Crichel

A bowl barrow recorded as being a mound around 60 feet in diameter and three feet high. This barrow was excavated by S and C M Piggott in the 1930s, revealing two concentric ditches, one entirely under the mound, interpreted as at least two phases of construction.

A bowl barrow, one of several scattered around the west side of the Crichel valley, to the west of Veiny Cheese Pond. It is one of two barrows (see also ST 91 SE 57) which appear to have influenced the course of the later linear earthwork ST 91 SW 40. The barrow was excavated in 1938 by S and CM Piggott. At the time, the barrow measured 81 feet in diameter and 3.2 feet in height. The excavation revealed two concentric sub-circular ditches a maximum of about 5 feet apart. The outer ditch, circa 72 feet in diameter, underlay the extreme edge of the spread mound. The inner ditch, circa 52 feet in diameter and deeper and more regularly cut than the outer, cut through an earlier pit on the eastern side. The pit contained sherds of several Beakers. The core of the mound, circa 28 feet in diameter, appeared to comprise of turf. Surrounding and partly beneath this mound was an area of disturbed soil circa 7 feet wide. At the centre of the barrow, beneath the mound, was an oval grave-pit aligned North-South and measuring 7 feet by 5 feet. It had been dug 9 feet down into the chalk, and was filled with chalk rubble, at the base of which was a crouched inhumation, at the feet of which were some bones from an adult pig (a "forequarter of pork", according to the Piggotts). The published plan appears to show another smaller pit adjacent to and cut by the grave pit, but this feature is not described in the excavation report. Additional Beaker sherds were found within the mound. This barrow was originally recorded as part of ST 91 SE 57.

Record last edited

Feb 22 2023 7:26PM