Monument record MDO1145 - Bowl barrow, Frampton, destroyed 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)

<1> Royal Commission on Historical Monuments England, 1952, An Inventory of Historical Monuments in the County of Dorset, Volume I (West), 116 (Monograph). SDO97.

<2> Grinsell, L V, 1959, Dorset Barrows, 109 (Monograph). SDO132.

Excavated in 1938, before being removed to widen road, primary crouched adult in oval grave beneath old turf-line central to primary ditch, subsequent primary deposit of bones, largely inarticulate, of child to North West, beneath primary mound and just within enclosing ditch, some secondary interments:
(i) crouched adult with remains of square-sectioned bronze awl and object of wood, inserted in primary mound.
(ii) human bones (disturbed)and parts of hybrid type beaker in filling of grave of (i), probably disturbed in digging.
(iii) crouched juvenile inserted from secondary into primary mound.
(iv) above last, crouched interment with pot of food-vessel type, inserted from secondary into primary mound.
(v) cremation beneath inverted food-vessel-shaped urn, covered by flint cairn.
(vi) cremation with upright food-vessel and 6 segmented blue faience beads.
(vii) cremation beneath inverted collared Early/Middle Bronze Age urn, perhaps later than last, intrusive crouched interment near top of mound perhaps Early Iron Age, Romano-British or pagan Saxon (Grinsell).

<3> Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society, 1959, Proceedings of the Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society for 1958, 111-132 (Serial). SDO58.

<4> Ordnance Survey, Ordnance Survey Map 6in, 1963 (Map). SWX1540.

(SY 63619481) Tumuli [NR] (sites of) [NAT]

<5> Barton, J G, Various, Field Investigators Comments JGB, F1 JGB 10-APR-1981 (Unpublished document). SDO11900.

<6> Historic England, Historic England Archive, P11330 (Index). SDO14738.

SECTION ACROSS BURIAL MOUND SHOWING PHASES OF CONSTRUCTION EXCAVATED BY SELBY AND KIRK IN 1937 OR 8. ONE OF THREE BARROWS

<7> National Record of the Historic Environment, 453697 (Digital archive). SDO14739.

Record last edited

Mar 18 2022 2:44PM