| Summary : A large round barrow or mound, part of a major monument complex at Knowlton and of probable Late Neolithic or Early Bronze Age date. Described in the RCHME Dorset Inventory as comprising a mound 135 feet in diameter and 21 feet high, surrounded by two concentric ditches, both largely levelled by ploughing. The inner ditch is separated from the base of the mound by a berm circa 15 feet across. The outer ditch is around 400 feet in diameter and about 35 feet wide. The air photo published by RCHME appears to show a distinct entrance causeway through the outer ditch on the northeast, althuogh the transcription shows it as a continuous feature. A pipe trench cut in July 1958 ran in a southwest-northeast direction, passing southeast of the mound but cutting across the outer ditch in two places. The pipe trench was fairly shallow in relation to the ditch, so a trial trench was excavated beside the pipe trench at the point where the latter crossed the south-southwest part of the barrow ditch. Constraints of time and space appear to have prevented a complete section being excavated. However, the ditch was shown to be 5.5 feet deep below the modern ground surface, and to be flat-bottomed. A sequence of fills was described briefly by the excavator. No artefacts were recovered. The barrow has been mapped from aerial photographs by EH's Knowlton Circles Project. |