| Summary : A Neolithic long barrow, Grinsell's Avebury 17, located immediately north of Beckhampton and southwest of the Longstones (SU 06 NE 56). A poorly recorded excavation was undertaken sometime prior to 1850. The only finds seem to have been a secondary cremation in a Biconical urn, accompanied by a bronze object, perhaps a dagger. Though plough damaged, the barrow is still extant as an earthwork mound 84 metres by 35 metres, and up to 6 metres high, flanked by side ditches 24 metres wide. |
More information : (SU 08706915) Long Barrow (NR) (1)
North of Beckhampton - Avebury 17: a mutilated long barrow with traces of side-ditches, orientated NE/SW, 225 ft long by 120 ft wide by 14 ft high. Excavated by Merewether (1820-1850), primary deposit not found part of secondary Bronze Age urn (Deverel Rimbury showing Cornish influence) containing burnt bones and a bit of bronze (dagger?). Urn now in Devizes Museum. (2-3)
SU 08706914 The long barrow, up to 6.0m high, is 84.0m long, NE-SW, and 35.0m wide, with clearly defined side ditches which Average 0.6m in depth, and are each 24.0m wide. The mound has been severely mutilated and its terminals ploughed, although it is now under pasture. Resurveyed at 1:2500. (4)
Listed in Kinnes' gazetteer of long barrows but excluded from his gazetteer of excavated barrows, presumably due to the poor quality of the excavation record. (5)
Finds in Devizes Museum from Mereweather's investigation described as consisting of the upper part of a biconical urn with finger Impressions on rim and body. Cremation and bronze dagger (?). (6)
The Neolithic long barrow, described by the previous authorities, is visible on early air photographs but has been covered with trees since then. (7-8)
The barrow was first recorded by William Stukeley in the early-to-mid 18th century. He noted that it had been "much damaged by the digging chalk out of it and perhaps stones". Merewether, in a note published after his death, referred to the discovery (by him?) of "fragments of a large unburnt urn, having the peculiarity of a handle;...[it] contained but bones and a piece of bronze, probably a spearhead. This barrow has been on several occasions reduced for purposes of husbandry, and has generally produced such relics. It appears to have been used at different periods as a place of sepulture, and might yet repay further investigation." Later in the 19th century, Smith referred to two sarsens being visible on the top of the mound. The bronze object as depicted by Merewether is difficult to identify. It has been referred to on occasions as a dagger, but this is far from certain. Gerloff does not include it in her gazetteer of British Bronze Age daggers, although she does include other finds known only from Merewether's drawings. Her gazetteer does not include any definite associations of daggers with biconical urns. (2, 5, 6, 9-12) |