Monument record MDO6086 - Bronze Age cremation cemetery, Handley Hill, Sixpenny Handley

Urnfield located to the south-west of barrow (MDO6085). Excavation by Pitt-Rivers (1898) identified over 50 cremations, nearly all in urns, mostly barrel urns, some globular urns and one collared urn.

[NGD note 27-02-23: The NRHE-to-HER database information from NRHE 1312842 has subsequently been split into 2 separate MDO records on the HBSMR database: bowl barrow MDO6085 and cremation cemetery MDO6086. For the full information from NRHE 1312842 also see MDO6085.]

A bowl barrow on Handley Hill [Note: ie MDO6085] subsequently became the focus of a cremation cemetery. Burials - more than 50 in all - may have begun in the Early Bronze Age, judging by the presence of one associated with bone tweezers and covered by an inverted collared urn. The overwhelming majority of associations were, however, with Deverel-Rimbury vessels. One was also associated with fragments of twisted bronze. Unburnt animal bones were present in six of the cremations. Most of the cremations were deposited outside the ditch to the west, while a smaller number were scattered to the south and east. During John Barrett and Richard Bradley's research programme focused on Cranborne Chase, the site was re-examined and the sequence and structure of burial activity analysed. In the process a series of radiocarbon dates were obtained on surviving charcoal samples from Pitt Rivers excavations. However, all dates were obtained during a period when the British Museum's radiocarbon dating results incorporated a systematic error. Only one sample was subsequently available for re-dating, some charcoal from one of the cremations deposits. The date obtained simply confirms the Middle Bronze Age date of the cremation deposit. NB this site was originally recorded as part of SU 01 NW 23.

<1> Pitt-Rivers, A H L F, 1898, Excavations in Cranborne Chase near Rushmore on the Borders of Dorset and Wilts 1893-96 Volume IV, 144-70 (Monograph). SDO16623.

<2> Grinsell, L V, 1959, Dorset Barrows, 114 (Monograph). SDO132.

<3> Royal Commission on Historical Monuments (England), 1975, An Inventory of Historical Monuments in the County of Dorset, Volume V (East), 71 (Monograph). SDO129.

‘Immediately S.W. of the barrow some fifty-two cremations were discovered, nearly all in urns. Barrel urns were most common, but a few globular urns and one collared urn were also present. (Pitt-Rivers, Excavations IV (1898), 147-57; Arch. J., CXIX (1962), 54-56.)’

<4> Barrett, J, Bradley, R and Green, M, 1991, Landscape, Monuments and Society: the prehistory of Cranborne Chase, 214-9 (Monograph). SDO16633.

<5> National Record of the Historic Environment, 1312842 (Digital archive). SDO14739.

Record last edited

Mar 8 2023 12:14PM