| Summary : A Bronze Age bowl barrow forming part of the Cow Down Barrow Cemetery. The barrow was designated as Collingbourne Ducis 10 by Grinsell (1957) and survives as an earthwork 33 metres in diameter and 2 metres high. A ditch 0.3 metres deep survives in the north and west quadrant. Excavations by W.C Lukis in 1861 located a pit, orientated north-south, containing a primary cremation within a hollowed tree trunk which would have projected above the ground surface. Also with the cremation was an antler hammer. Above the grave, an area circa 20 feet in diameter was covered by a 4 inch thick layer of "dark mould" which contained "innumerable fragments of ornamented urns, charred animal bones and flint chippings". Lukis' trenching was rather limited in scope, but he found several secondary cremations, predominantly to the south and east. One was beneath an inverted pottery vessel, whilst another was beneath an upright, empty vessel. Lukis published a rather schematic section of the barrow, which shows a mound comprising a "heap of mould", surrounded by a ditch with outer bank. The ditch was separated from the mound by a heap of "very compact pounded chalk", perhaps representing an inner bank. This chalk bank appears to have subsequently been incorporated into the barrow mound itself via the addition of a layer of chalk rubble. It was this rubble layer which either contained or covered the secondary cremations. |
More information : (NB. This barrow was originally recorded as part of Monument HOB UID 224506 - NMR SU 25 SW 30. Please see this record for additional information).
[Centred SU229515] Tumuli [NR]. (1)
Barrow F: SU 22945151, Collingbourne Ducis 10. A bowl barrow 27 paces in diameter, 8.5 feet high. (2) Excavated by W.C Lukis (Barrow WCL 5) who located a primary cremation accompanied by a perforated antler hammer head within a tree-trunk coffin. Six secondary cremations were also identified, one was situated beneath an inverted urn, another beneath an empty upright urn. Other material included beaker and urn sherds and a stone pestle-shaped pounder (Group 1. P291). (3)
Barrow F: Collingbourne Ducis 10, a bowl barrow 2 metres high but much burrowed, with a 0.3 metres deep ditch around the north and west quadrant. Surveyed at 1:2500. (4)
Originally recorded as Collingbourne Ducis 10 by Goddard. (5)
A ditched bowl barrow 33 metres in diameter. Excavations in the 19th century revealed a number of cremations. (6) |