Excavation of a Round Barrow on Overton Hill, North Wiltshire

Abstract

The barrow is No. 6b in L. V. Grinsell's list for the parish of West Overton (V.C.H. Wilts., 1, Part I, 1957). It stood some 400 feet to the north of the most northerly member of the conspicuous group of bowl and bell barrows that straddles the A.4 road on Overton, or Sevenbarrow, Hill, 4½ miles west of Marlborough (SU 11966835). Its position is marked on the OS. 6-inch map (SU 16NW), but not on the 1-inch (Sheet 157). The height above sea-level is about 580 feet.The subsoil is Upper Chalk, its surface broken by irregular depressions and long parallel troughs filled with a soft buff material, evidently the result of weathering under periglacial conditions. The topsoil is a rendsina about 6 inches thick.Most of the barrows on Overton Hill are known to have been dug into in the past. No. 6b had escaped the attentions of antiquarians, but it was evident before excavation that it had nevertheless suffered extensive disturbances.

Saucer Barrows: Places for Ritual within Wessex Early Bronze Age Chalkland Barrow Cemeteries

“…This is of interest, as although charcoal‐packed pits have been found beneath some other Wessex barrow types (e.g. Smith and Simpson ), the practice is more reminiscent of activities found within and beneath ring cairns and enclosure barrows in the west of Britain (e.g. Wainwright et al .…”

Two Traditions of Bronze Age Burial in the Stonehenge Landscape

“…This included stone axes and maces, belt rings, pulley-rings or toggles and shale rings and beads. The evidence from bronze daggers, ornamental gold-work, amber beads and sponge-finger stones was also considered (Smith and Simpson 1966;Gerloff 1975;Taylor 1979;Beck and Shennan 1991;Eogan 1994).…”

New Perspectives on the Bell‐Beaker Culture

“…The approach to these assemblages is obstructed by inevitable problems of definition; Piggott (1973, 344) for instance suggested that a coherent assemblage was necessary to signify a specialist and that individual implements such as the hammer-stones found at Ames-bury G4 might merely be personal possessions. As always it is difficult to know where to draw the line but two Beaker associated leather-working assemblages at least seem clear, both associated with males: Amesbury 51 (Wiltshire; Ashbee 1978) and West Overton 6B (Wiltshire; Smith and Simpson 1966). It is difficult to identify further instances however although Ashbee (1978, 42) suggested that Aldro 116 Grave A (Yorkshire) -a male burial with Beaker, bronze awl, flint flake, horn core and roe deer antler -might also have been a leather worker.…”