King Barrow is a very large tumulus, 200ft long and 15 wide, about 200 yards north of the village of Boreham, which on being thrown open by a section to the centre, and then to right and left, in 1800, yielded only intermingled pieces of bones of birds and beasts, boars' tusks, stags' horns, charred wood, fragments of the coarsest pottery, and the skeleton of a horse. A second excavation disclosed three human skeletons, on the thigh of one of which was an iron sword, with the blade 18" long, 2 wide and single edged: lying near was a part of a rude urn, but prettily ornamented. These remains being supposed to be but a subsequent deposit, at great expense and toil, a third cutting was made at a deeper level, and black ashes, burnt wood and bones, and bits of earthenware were exposed, but the primary interments remained undiscovered. If you get an undercurrent of unimpressedness at the repeated excavations, you'd probably be right: see what John Daniell wrote about Cop Heap.
From 'The History of Warminster' by John J Daniell (1879).
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Posted by Rhiannon
10th March 2006ce
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