| Summary : Cropmark remains of a double ditched Neolithic oval barrow, excavated 1983-5. The site is located close to the Barrow Hills monument cluster (SU 59 NW 8) which lies to the east, and is itself just east of the Abingdon causewayed enclosure (SU 59 NW 30). The monument itself saw five main phases of construction and use, beginning as a rectangular mortuary structure, possibly associated with a central grave. Subsequently this was surrounded by a larger U-shaped enclosure, itself later closed off, and an enlarged oval long mound constructed. Two split timber posts were erected outside the open south west end of the monument during the U-shaped enclosure phase. The central oval grave contained the remains of two adult crouched inhumations. The legs of one overlay the legs of the other. Associated finds include a polished flint knife, a leaf-shaped arrowhead and a jet or shale belt slider. The two skeletons produced radiocarbon dates which do not overlap. Human remains (cremated and otherwise) from other contexts including the ditches produced dates in the late 4th and early 3rd millennium BC. Other finds include Earlier Neolithic and Beaker pottery, flints and animal bones. Later activity includes four pits dug at the south east end, two with Grooved Ware and one with Beaker sherds. Deverel-Rimbury sherds were also found in excavations. A Saxon grubenhaus was cut into the centre of the oval barrow, and Saxon potsherds were found in the ditches. |