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Summary

Part of a Scheduled Monument, a low circular flat-topped platform barrow, surrounded by an infilled ditch

Associated Legal Designations or Protected Status

• Scheduled Monument 1009458: TWO PLATFORM BARROWS AND A BOWL BARROW 440M SOUTH OF GREENWAY COTTAGES

Other Statuses and Cross-References

• Berkshire SMR No. (pre 2000): 01312.01.000
  

Monument Type(s):

• PLATFORM BARROW (Bronze Age - 2350 BC to 701 BC)

Full Description

PART OF SM 19029. EXCAV. RECORDED DEEP CIRCULAR DITCH, SPOIL THROWN UP TO FORM RINGS OF RUBBLE INSIDE. NO INTERMENT FOUND, MAY OR MAY NOT HAVE BEEN SEPULCHRAL. "POSS ERECTED AS EARLY AS 400BC BUT MORE LIKELY TO DATE FROM START OF CHRISTIAN PERIOD." (1930s interpretation). OS FIELD VISIT 1964 HOLLOW CENTRE, NO TRACE OF DITCH.

This southernmost barrow was Barrow I in the 1933 excavations and the following description is taken from the report by Peake and Padel <1>. A wide belt of turf was stripped off one half of the crest revealing a clean chalk surface with no indication of post-holes. A 2 feet wide east-west trench (line 8) was then dug right across the barrow, down to undisturbed chalk bed rock. An external deep ditch had silted up for some distance, had then had a fire lit in it, and later on had been filled up with large flints almost to the natural surface. On the top of the platform barrow was a ring formed by clean chalk rubble, and in the centre was 2-3 feet of silt, washed down from the surface of this ring. Beneath this were a few inches of compressed red-brown clay, lying over the undisturbed bedrock; this layer was interpreted as the remains of the original ground surface, and a small fragment of decorated beaker ware was found in it. There was no sign of an interment or pit, but other finds within the ring but at a higher level included Iron Age and Romano-British pottery, as well as one medieval sherd and many fragments of animal bone.
Beneath the ring of chalk rubble were four fragments of gritty pottery attributed by Hawkes to the Early Iron Age, but Thurlow Leeds to the late Bronze Age. Four sections were also cut through the external ditch; further finds from the fill included animal bones, iron artefacts (a nail and knife blade) and Romano-British and Iron Age pottery.

Sources and further reading

Related Monuments

Associated Excavations and Fieldwork

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