Details

The monument includes a bowl barrow situated on a ridge overlooking Coombe
Bottom to the south east.
The barrow has a mound composed of limestone rubble, with maximum dimensions
of 16m in diameter and about 1.25m in height. The mound is surrounded by a
ditch from which material was quarried during the construction of the
monument. The ditch has become infilled over the years, but will survive as a
buried feature about 2m wide.
The barrow was partially excavated by J H Austen in 1855. A cremation within
a highly decorated urn associated with stone packing was thought to represent
the primary burial. Two smaller urns each containing a cremation were also
identified, and an inhumation burial associated with a Romano-British
penannular brooch represented an intrusive later deposit. A number of stones,
some with signs of burning, have also been identified around the southern area
of the barrow mound. Many of the finds discovered during the excavation are
now held at the Dorset County Museum.
The barrow lies within an area of later field system which has been reduced by
ploughing and the surviving remains are not included in the scheduling.

MAP EXTRACT
The site of the monument is shown on the attached map extract.
It includes a 2 metre boundary around the archaeological features,
considered to be essential for the monument's support and preservation.

Source: Historic England

Reasons for Scheduling

Bowl barrows, the most numerous form of round barrow, are funerary monuments
dating from the Late Neolithic period to the Late Bronze Age, with most
examples belonging to the period 2400-1500 BC. They were constructed as
earthen or rubble mounds, sometimes ditched, which covered single or multiple
burials. They occur either in isolation or grouped as cemeteries and often
acted as a focus for burials in later periods. Often superficially similar,
although differing widely in size, they exhibit regional variations in form
and a diversity of burial practices. There are over 10,000 surviving bowl
barrows recorded nationally (many more have already been destroyed), occurring
across most of lowland Britain. Often occupying prominent locations, they are
a major historic element in the modern landscape and their considerable
variation of form and longevity as a monument type provide important
information on the diversity of beliefs and social organisations amongst early
prehistoric communities. They are particularly representative of their period
and a substantial proportion of surviving examples are considered worthy of
protection.

Despite some ploughing around the periphery of the mound, the bowl barrow 760m
south west of Afflington Barn survives well and is known from partial
excavation to contain archaeological and environmental evidence relating to
the monument and the landscape in which it was constructed.

Source: Historic England

Sources

Books and journals
Historical Monuments in the County of Dorset: Volume I, (1970), 443

Source: Historic England