Two bowl barrows on Turner's Puddle Heath, 480m and 540m north east of Lawrence of Arabia's Cottage

Reasons for Designation

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 disturbance to the south eastern example, the two bowl barrows on Turner's Puddle Heath, 480m and 540m north east of Lawrence of Arabia's Cottage, survive well. They are known to contain archaeological and environmental evidence relating to the monument and the landscape in which it was constructed.

Details

The monument, which falls into two separate areas of protection, includes two bowl barrows situated on a plateau on Turner's Puddle Heath, to the north east of Cloud's Hill. The barrows form part of a dispersed group of three similar monuments recorded by the Ordnance Survey in 1952. The southern of these has since been levelled and perhaps destroyed, and is not included within the scheduling. The north western of the two surviving barrows has a mound composed of earth, sand and turf, with maximum dimensions of 22m in diameter and about 2m in height. The south eastern barrow has been partly truncated by the road to the south. It has maximum dimensions of 22m from east to west, by 12.5m from north to south and is about 1.5m in height. The mound is surmounted by a triangulation pillar. The mound has yielded a flint knife and dagger, both of Early Bronze Age form and which are now held at Dorset County Museum. These finds were made when a flagpole was inserted into the central area of the mound; the flagpole has since been removed. A salvage investigation of part of the barrow was made by Lt Col C D Drew during the construction of the road to the south in the spring of 1952. This retrieved a pollen sequence which suggested that the barrow was constructed after the clearance of woodland and the subsequent establishment of grass and heather. Each mound is surrounded by a ditch from which material was quarried during the construction of the monument. The ditches have become infilled over the years, but each will survive as a buried feature about 2m wide, including that section beneath the road south of the south eastern barrow. All fence posts and the surface of the tarmac road to the south of the south eastern barrow are excluded from the scheduling, although the ground beneath them is included.

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.

Legacy

The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.

Legacy System number:

35236

Legacy System:

RSM

Sources

Books and journals
Historical Monuments in the County of Dorset: Volume I, (1970), 453
Historical Monuments in the County of Dorset: Volume I, (1970), 453-4
Piggott, S, Dimbleby, G, Proc Dorset Nat Hist Arch Soc in A Bronze Age Barrow on Turner's Puddle Heath, Vol. 75, (1953), 34-5

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