| Summary : A bowl barrow, one of a group of six located to the northeast of the South Lodge enclosure (ST 91 NE 9), within its associated field system (ST 91 NE 33). Designated "Barrow Pleck 4" by Pitt Rivers, it was excavated by him in 1880, and re-excavated by Barrett el al during their 1977-84 excavations on Cranborne Chase. Pitt Rivers described the mound as being 8.5 feet high and 40 feet in diameter. A circular depression on top was evidence of earlier digging. The mound was surrounded by a ditch 2.5 feet deep and 9 feet wide at the top. A circular pit near the centre was found to contain nothing. Three stakeholes were nearby, as was a cremation deposit, presumably lying on the chalk surface? The lower part of a Barrel Urn was also found standing on the chalk 7 feet east of the pit. Some animal bones were found west of the centre. two sherds of Later Neolithic Grooved Warepottery came from the mound. Subsequently, as with other barrows in the group, Pitt Rivers "restored" the mound. Re-excavation of this was not attempted, but some small sample squares were cut around the barrow, while a trench was dug across line of the ditch beside the road which cuts the side of the barrow, in the hope that undisturbed ditch deposits might be present. An eroded ditch profile was recorded, and a hogh concentration of flint nodules recovered resembled deposits from other barrows in the group. Another trench located a large, irregular pit just outside the barrow ditch on its south east side. This is suggested to have provided chalk material for capping the barrow mound. While the barrow is not demonstrably earlier than the others in the group - Middle Bronze Age - Barrett et al note its greater complexity and size, hinting that may be earlier. This barrow was formerly recorded as part of ST 91 NE 3. That record should be consulted for additional sources and information. |