More information : Evidence of Earlier Neolithic occupation (c. 3500 - 2000 bc) on Hengistbury Head is not well represented - only a small assemblage of leaf-shaped arrowheads is known. However, analogy with sites within the vicinity suggests some intermittent activity, if not a settlement, is likely to have taken place.
Evidence for Later Neolithic and Earliest Bronze Age occupation (2000 - 1700 bc) is mainly artefactual. A large flint assemblage and grooved ware pottery have been interpreted as representing a Late Neolithic settlement of high status to both local communities and probably within Wessex as a whole. Occupation ceased c. 1400 bc when the headland was used as a burial ground. The cemetery comprises of 13 surviving round barrows and at least one unmarked flat grave (SZ 19 SE 86). Eleven of the round barrows were excavated; three by Bushe Fox in 1911-12 (SZ 19 SE 72, 75 and 77) (1) and eight by Gray in 1919 and 1922 (SZ 19 SE 73-74, 76, 78-81, 108). Two appear to be undisturbed (SZ 19 SE 29 and 30).
One of the barrows (SZ 19 SE 72) contained a high status cremation accompanied by objects of amber, copper alloy and gold which can be closely paralled with the `Wessex Culture' burials, particularly those of the Wilsford and Dorset Ridgeway series. (2)
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