Monument record MDO6370 - Inhumation in bowl barrow in the Oakley Down Group, Wimborne St Giles

An intrusive 'pagan' Saxon inhumation burial (female) found near the surface of Bronze Age barrow MDO6369, and accompanied by a gilt button-brooch, glass and amber beads, two bronze rings, and fragments of iron.

The bowl barrow MDO6369 is part of the barrow group on Oakley Down (SU 01 NW 19). It was described by RCHME as a mound 45 feet in diameter and 4 feet high. The mound is cut on the north western side by the A354. The barrow was dug into in the early 19th century by Cunnington and Hoare (their barrow 1). They found a primary burial comprising a crouched inhumation of "a tall and stout man" some ten feet below the surface of the chalk. Within the mound itself, at a depth of just over two feet, they found an intrusive Saxon inhumation comprising the extended skeleton of an adult female accompanied by numerous glass and amber beads, and a gilt bronze brooch. Some of these objects are in Devizes Museum.

<1> Grinsell, L V, 1959, Dorset Barrows, 143 (Monograph). SDO132.

<2> Colt Hoare, Sir Richard, 1975, The ancient history of Wiltshire, 236-7 (Monograph). SDO18077.

<3> Royal Commission on Historical Monuments (England), 1975, An Inventory of Historical Monuments in the County of Dorset, Volume V (East), 102-4 (Monograph). SDO129.

‘(121) Bell (02011752), (Hoare No. 4), yielded a primary inhumation at a depth of 12 ft. and, 2 ft. above it, two further inhumations with a small handled cup, a bronze dagger and a shale bead (Devizes Mus. Cat., 1964, No. 463). More recently, two secondary cremations (one in an inverted urn) and sherds including the rim of a bucket urn were found near the surface, in the side of the mound (Dorset Procs., 72 (1950), 92; 77 (1955), 151). The mound is 84 ft. in diameter and 10 ft. high; the sloping berm is 12 ft. across; the ditch is 16 ft. wide and 1 ft. deep.’

<4> Society of Antiquaries of London, 1982, Archaeologia 107, 107, Avent, R and Evans, VI (Serial). SDO17747.

<5> Bowen, H C, 1990, The Archaeology of Bokerley Dyke (Monograph). SWX800.

<6> National Record of the Historic Environment, 1312546 (Digital archive). SDO14739.

Record last edited

Jul 30 2024 3:03PM