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Site name Poole 34, Knighton Heath
Site number 1356
Burial codes 3005 3009 3021 3023 3025 3028 3030 3033 3041 3037 3051 3052 3053 3065 3075 3081 3083 3093 3098 3103 3108 3110 3111 3128 3143 3151 3152 3153 3161 3171 3173 3181 3200
14/1300bc-8/700bc A small round barrow surrounded by an irregularly oval ditch with a causeway to the south, and with a composite mound and a sand core capped by gravel. The primary features included 17 Deverel-Rimbury biconical, bucket and globular urns (10 in the core of the mound), many in excellent condition, nine unaccompanied cremations, and 19 scattered stake holes and 10 pits, many of the last containing large amounts of charcoal. Sherds and lumps of charcoal occurred in some quantity on the pre-barrow surface under the sand core and in the material of the latter.

Also primary was a setting of 6 upright hearthstone slabs to the west of the centre, varying in height from 40-55cm, in most cases set in the upper fills of pits containing urns. Other urns had been packed against the upper faces of some of the slabs. Charcoal occurred with some of the urns, and was associated with other primary features.

A total of 47 Deverel-Rimbury urns had been secondarily inserted into the gravel capping, or occupied pits dug into the flat ground south of the barrow. Flints, many of them worked, potsherds, and several ground stone objects also occurred in secondary contexts. 4 pairs of secondary urns were in intersecting pits in the concentration in the south quadrant. There were 9 secondary pits and 3 stakeholes.

Of the 59 urns of known position, 11 were inverted, the others upright. Artefact associations were rare. Urn 48 contained a tiny scrap of copper or bronze, Urn 12 a clay disc like the base of a small pot, and Urn 30 contained a stone grinder (but no burial).

Cremations of all ages and both sexes were discernible from the identifiable remains: 4 definite males, 3 definite females, 28 adults and 4 sub-adults. The cremated bone quantities varied considerably, and there were both multiple burial deposits and token burials, suggesting to the excavator that the cremated remains were sometimes stored for a time before final burial in the cemetery perhaps with the latest deceased.

RC: C183 BM-873 1189 +/-50, C171 BM-872 1178 +/-52, C369 BM-876 1168 +/-52, C223 BM-874 1102 +/-40, C170 BM-871 1123 +/-49
Remains/Period Y3
County Dorset
Region S
National grid square SZ
X coordinate 47
Y coordinate 960
Bibliographic source Petersen 1971, 1972c


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