Five Marys

Last updated
Five Marys
Five Marys Tumuli - geograph.org.uk - 417487.jpg
Looking east along the line of barrows
Dorset UK location map.svg
Archaeological site icon (red).svg
Shown within Dorset
Locationnear Chaldon Herring, Dorset
Coordinates 50°39′25.6″N2°17′53.2″W / 50.657111°N 2.298111°W / 50.657111; -2.298111 Coordinates: 50°39′25.6″N2°17′53.2″W / 50.657111°N 2.298111°W / 50.657111; -2.298111
OS grid reference SY 790 842
Type Round barrows
History
Periods Bronze Age
Site notes
Excavation dates19th century
Archaeologists Duchess of Berry
Designated27 February 1957
Reference no.1013344

The Five Marys is a group of Bronze Age round barrows near the village of Chaldon Herring, in Dorset, England. The site is a scheduled monument. [1]

Contents

Description

The barrows, on a west–east ridge overlooking Chaldon Herring to the south, are in an almost straight line. In Taylor's Map of Dorset, of 1765, they are shown as "Five Meers" (boundary points). [1] [2]

There are two bowl barrows, and four or seven bell barrows, according to different surveys. A pond barrow has been discerned but was not visible on other inspections. The largest barrow has height 3.3 metres (11 ft). All but one have been damaged by antiquarian excavation. [1] [2] [3]

Excavation

Two of the barrows were excavated before 1866 by the Duchess of Berry; she was staying in Lulworth Castle, in exile after the dethronement of Charles X of France in 1830. [1]

The two barrows excavated are thought to be the first and third large barrows from the west end. A deep chalk-cut grave was found in each barrow, each containing a male skeleton in a sitting position, with stag antlers overlying each shoulder. One barrow also contained a female skeleton, with similarly placed stag antlers, and the other had a secondary cremation in an urn. [1] [2]

Related Research Articles

Silbury Hill Neolithic mound in Wiltshire, England

Silbury Hill is a prehistoric artificial chalk mound near Avebury in the English county of Wiltshire. It is part of the Stonehenge, Avebury and Associated Sites UNESCO World Heritage Site. At 39.3 metres (129 ft) high, it is the tallest prehistoric man-made mound in Europe and one of the largest in the world; similar in size to some of the smaller Egyptian pyramids of the Giza Necropolis.

Purbeck District Non-metropolitan district in England

Purbeck was a local government district in Dorset, England. The district was named after the Isle of Purbeck, a peninsula that forms a large proportion of the district's area. However, it extended significantly further north and west than the traditional boundary of the Isle of Purbeck which is the River Frome. The district council was based in the town of Wareham, which is itself north of the Frome.

Arbor Low Neolithic henge monument in England

Arbor Low is a well-preserved Neolithic henge in the Derbyshire Peak District, England. It lies on a Carboniferous Limestone plateau known as the White Peak area. The monument consists of a stone circle surrounded by earthworks and a ditch.

Hambledon Hill

Hambledon Hill is a prehistoric hill fort in Dorset, England, situated in the Blackmore Vale five miles northwest of Blandford Forum. The hill itself is a chalk outcrop, on the southwestern corner of Cranborne Chase, separated from the Dorset Downs by the River Stour. It is owned by the National Trust.

Chaldon Herring Human settlement in England

Chaldon Herring or East Chaldon is a village and civil parish in the English county of Dorset, about 8 miles (13 km) south-east of the county town of Dorchester. It is sited 2 miles (3.2 km) from the coast in the chalk hills of the South Dorset Downs. The highest point in the area is Chaldon Hill about 1.5 miles (2.4 km) to the south, overlooking the sea. In the 2011 census the civil parish had 59 households and a population of 140.

Lydlinch Human settlement in England

Lydlinch is a village and civil parish in the Blackmore Vale in north Dorset, England, about three miles west of Sturminster Newton. The village is sited on Oxford clay close to the small River Lydden. The parish – which includes the village of King's Stag to the south and the hamlet of Stock Gaylard to the west – is bounded by the Lydden to the east and its tributary, the Caundle Brook, to the north.

Winterborne Whitechurch Human settlement in England

Winterborne Whitechurch, also Winterborne Whitchurch, is a village and civil parish in central Dorset, England, situated in a winterbourne valley on the A354 road on the Dorset Downs five miles southwest of Blandford Forum. In the 2011 census the civil parish had 354 dwellings, 331 households and a population of 757.

Bush Barrow Archaeological site in England

Bush Barrow is a site of the early British Bronze Age, at the western end of the Normanton Down Barrows cemetery. It is among the most important sites of the Stonehenge complex, having produced some of the most spectacular grave goods in Britain. It was excavated in 1808 by William Cunnington for Sir Richard Colt Hoare. The finds, including worked gold objects, are displayed at Wiltshire Museum in Devizes.

Stonehenge Cursus Neolithic monument in Wiltshire, England

The Stonehenge Cursus is a large Neolithic cursus monument on Salisbury plain, near to Stonehenge in Wiltshire, England. It is roughly 3 kilometres (1.9 mi) long and between 100 metres (330 ft) and 150 metres (490 ft) wide. Excavations in 2007 dated the construction of the earthwork to between 3630 and 3375 BCE, several hundred years before the earliest phase of Stonehenge in 3000 BC. The cursus, along with adjacent barrows and the nearby 'Lesser Cursus' are part of the National Trust's Stonehenge Landscape property, and is within the Stonehenge and Avebury World Heritage Site.

Normanton Down Barrows Barrows in England

Normanton Down is a Neolithic and Bronze Age barrow cemetery located about 0.6 miles (1 km) south of Stonehenge in Wiltshire, England. The burials date from between 2600 and 1600 BC and consist of a Neolithic long barrow and some 40 or more Bronze Age round barrows, sited along the crest of a low ridge.

Cursus Barrows Barrow cemetery in England

The Cursus Barrows is the name given to a Neolithic and Bronze Age round barrow cemetery located mostly south of the western end of the Stonehenge Cursus. The cemetery contains around 18 round barrows scattered along an east-to-west ridge, although some of the mounds are no longer visible. The Cursus Barrows can be seen just north of the route between the Stonehenge Visitor Centre and Stonehenge.

Chaldon Hill

Chaldon Hill, also called Chaldon Down, is one of the highest hills, 178 metres (584 ft), on South Dorset's Jurassic Coast in England. The summit is about 1.5 miles (2.4 km) west of Durdle Door.

The Grey Mare and her Colts Long Barrow in Dorset, England

The Grey Mare and her Colts is a megalithic chambered long barrow located near Abbotsbury in Dorset, England. It was built during the Early and Middle Neolithic periods. The tomb was partially excavated in the early nineteenth century, and was found to contain human bones and several pottery fragments.

Rempstone Stone Circle Stone circle in Corfe Castle, Dorset, United Kingdom

Rempstone Stone Circle is a stone circle located near to Corfe Castle on the Isle of Purbeck in the south-western English county of Dorset. Archaeologists believe that it was likely erected during the Bronze Age. The Rempstone ring is part of a tradition of stone circle construction that spread throughout much of Britain, Ireland, and Brittany during the Late Neolithic and Early Bronze Age, over a period between 3,300 and 900 BCE. The purpose of such monuments is unknown, although archaeologists speculate that they were likely religious sites, with the stones perhaps having supernatural associations for those who built the circles. Local folklore holds that the stones arrived in their position after being thrown at Corfe Castle by the Devil.

Blackpatch

Blackpatch is an archaeological site in West Sussex, England, about 2 miles (3.2 km) west of the village of Findon and about 3 miles (4.8 km) north-west of Worthing.

Wor Barrow

Wor Barrow is a Neolithic long barrow on Cranborne Chase, about 1 mile (1.6 km) east of Sixpenny Handley in Dorset, England. It is a scheduled monument.

Thickthorn Down Long Barrows

The Thickthorn Down Long Barrows are two Neolithic long barrows, near the village of Gussage St Michael in Dorset, England. They are near the south-western end of the Dorset Cursus, a Neolithic feature. The long barrows are a scheduled monument.

Oakley Down Barrow Cemetery

Oakley Down Barrow Cemetery is a group of Bronze Age round barrows on Cranborne Chase, about 1 mile (1.6 km) east of the village of Sixpenny Handley in Dorset, England. It is a scheduled monument.

South Lodge Camp

South Lodge Camp is an archaeological site of the Bronze Age, situated about 0.6 miles (1.0 km) south-east of the village of Tollard Royal, in Wiltshire, England. The site is on Cranborne Chase, near the boundary with Dorset. It is a scheduled monument.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 Historic England. "The Five Marys round barrow cemetery (1013344)". National Heritage List for England . Retrieved 24 January 2021.
  2. 1 2 3 'Earthworks: Round Barrows', in An Inventory of the Historical Monuments in Dorset, Volume 2, South east (London, 1970), pp. 434-480 British History Online. Retrieved 24 January 2021.
  3. "Five Marys" Pastscape. Retrieved 25 January 2021.