The Modern Antiquarian. Stone Circles, Ancient Sites, Neolithic Monuments, Ancient Monuments, Prehistoric Sites, Megalithic MysteriesThe Modern Antiquarian

Launceston Down South Group

Barrow / Cairn Cemetery

Miscellaneous

The Launceston Down South Group comprises thirteen barrows (36–44); four of them lie in the neighbouring parish of Long Crichel (see Dorset V). They are between 200 ft. and 250 ft. above O.D., and extend in an irregular line from W. to E. on the northward-facing slope of a dry combe which falls E. to the Crichel brook. All these barrows were excavated in 1938 by S. and C. M. Piggott (Arch., XC (1944), 47–80); they are no longer visible on the ground and former dimensions, etc. are recorded.
(36) Bowl (95381067), covering a primary cremation, associated with a calcite double-spaced bead, in a circular grave cut into the chalk; diam. 25 ft., ht. 1 ft. (Piggott, 18).
(37) Bowl (95501069), disturbed in the past, yielded a cremation, probably primary, under an inverted cinerary urn in a shallow pit in the chalk; diam. 35 ft., ht. 1½ ft. (Piggott, 12).
(38) Bowl (95621064), with a primary crouched inhumation near the centre associated with a leaf-shaped arrowhead; diam. 40 ft., ht. 1 ft. (Piggott, 13).
(39) Bowl (95731061), covering a primary cremation in a pit cut into the chalk; diam. 12 ft., ht. 1 ft. (Piggott, 15).
(40) Bowl (95741058), containing a primary crouched inhumation with a trephined skull, associated with a bell beaker, in a central grave cut into the chalk, and a secondary cremation near it; diam. 17 ft., ht. less than 1 ft. (Piggott, 14).
(41) Bowl (95771060), apparently disturbed by earlier digging, probably had contained a primary inhumation associated with a small long-necked beaker; diam. 25 ft., ht. 1 ft. (Piggott, 16).
(42) Bowl (95711050), containing a primary crouched inhumation, associated with a bronze awl and a long-necked beaker, in a large grave cut into the chalk. An urn of 'degenerate food-vessel' type was found in a secondary position in this grave. Diam. 18 ft., ht. 1 ft. (Piggott, 17).
(43) Bowl (95891056), yielding a primary cremation and four secondary cremations, one of them associated with an inverted sub-biconical urn (Arch. J., CXIX (1962), 41, 62). An intrusive crouched inhumation near the edge of the mound was probably Romano-British or pagan Saxon. Diam. 40 ft., ht. 2 ft., with a horseshoe-shaped ditch with a causeway on the E. (Piggott, 9; Dorset Barrows, Long Crichel, No. 22).
(44) Bowl (95901060), with three extended inhumations, perhaps intrusive and probably of pagan Saxon origin, in a shallow scraping in the chalk; diam. 20 ft., ht. less than 1 ft. (Piggot, 6; Dorset Barrows, Long Crichel, No. 19).

http://www.british-history.ac.uk/rchme/dorset/vol4/pp105-107#h3-0005
Chance Posted by Chance
2nd April 2016ce

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