Monument record MDO6092 - Bowl Barrow, one of the Scrubbity Barrows Group, Sixpenny Handley

A bowl barrow recorded in 1975 as being around 52 feet in diameter, with a mound four feet high. This barrow was excavated by Pitt-Rivers, who found a crouched burial inside a boat-shaped tree-trunk coffin.

HER comment: The text of <3> says 'cremation' but this must surely be an inhumation. Scrubbity Barrows; a group of round barrows all excavated, but most partially, by General Pitt-Rivers. Pitt-Rivers reconstituted the barrows which he dug. Details are as follows: (A) ST 97251788. Bowl barrow 52ft in diameter by 4ft high (Pitt-Rivers ix). It contained a primary crouched cremation in a boat-shaped tree-trunk coffin. A flint knife and axe and hundreds of flint flakes were found in the mound. <2> <4> A bowl barrow in Scrubbity Coppice, one of a group excavated by Pitt Rivers in 1882-3. Pitt Rivers' barrow ix (RCHME's Sixpenny Handley 43, Grinsell's Handley 1), it was excavated between December 15th and 31st 1882. Prior to excavation, it was visible as a mound 52 feet in diameter and 4.5 feet maximum height. Excavation showed it to be surrounded by a ditch 5 feet wide at the top. At the centre was a wooden boat-shaped coffin, cut from a single trunk. Circa 4 feet 2 inches by 1 foot 9 inches, it was orientated northwest-southeast and contained a sigle cremation deposit. Pitt Rivers stated that the coffin rested in a pit ("hole") circa 1 foot deep dug into the chalk below the mound. However, the published section appears to show the coffin placed in the top of a small primary mound of chalk rubble and earth. Other finds from the barrow mound included a flint knife, a flint axehead, 595 flint flakes and some potsherds. [NB this record formerly contained details of all barrows in the Scrubbity Coppice. These have now been recorded separately - see associated monument records] <5>

Record last edited

Sep 3 2022 2:31PM