Monument Number 221142 |
Hob Uid: 221142 | |
Location : Wiltshire Alton
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Grid Ref : SU1205063620 |
Summary : A bowl barrow on Knap Hill, listed by Grinsell and others as Alton 8. Located within the western end of the Knap Hill causewayed enclosure. It was dug into by Thurnham in the 1850s, and proved to contain a primary cremation. Animal bones were also found during the excavation. In 1974, the Ordnance Survey recorded the barrow as a mound 18 metres in diameter and up to 0.6 metres high, surrounded by a ditch 0.3 metres deep. More recently, the site was surveyed by RCHME during work on the Knap Hill causewayed enclosure, part of the Industry and Enclosure in the Neolithic project. See archive report for full details. [NB the other Knap Hill barrows, formerly recorded here, have now been recorded separately. See associated monument records for further details]. |
More information : (A SU 12056362) Tumulus (NR). (1) Grinsell records bowl barrows on Knap Hill as follows - A Alton 8; 13 paces x 1 1/2ft ditched with a hollow in the centre of the mound. Excavated by Thurnam: primary cremation; superficially, bones of sheep and other animals. B Alton 9, approx SU12146368; destroyed long ago by flint diggers. C Alton 10 (sited from air-photo(3) to SU 11986356 14 paces x 1ft, ditched. Excavated by Thurnam without result. (Probably the barrows excavated by C W Phillips in 1937 and described as "Alton 13 - south of Knap Hill Camp". It is the only other barrow apart from the published one visible on air-photograph(3). Phillip's excavation revealed a primary crouched skeleton on the old ground surface; in the material, Neolithic 'A' sherds and flint knapping refuse, possibly from the Neolithic site nearby. Grinsell queries whether this is perhaps a Neolithic Burial. D Alton 11 - outside the north corner of Knap Hill Camp (possibly the mound shown at SU12126374 - see plan with SU 16 SW 22). Excavated by BH Cunnington: intrusive: incomplete skeleton facing downwards buried superficially, period uncertain. (2-3) SU 1205 6362: Alton 8; a bowl barrow 18m overall diameter and up to 0.6m high, with an outer ditch 0.3m deep. SU 11976358; Alton 10: this barrow is 16m overall diameter and rises to 0.4m in height above a 0.2m deep ditch. Alton 9: No evidence of this barrow survives in an area of flint digging. SU 12126374: Alton 11; this mound may well have been utilized as a barrow but it has none of the characteristic barrow features; it has however, obviously been excavated. Resurveyed at 1:2500. (4)
The two Bronze Age barrows and the third possible barrow described by the previous authority have been mapped at 1:10,000 scale from aerial photographs and a 1:1000 scale plan produced during the RCHME: Industry and enclosure in the Neolithic Project (Event UID 923509). (5)
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