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i 



BRONZE AGE BAKROWS ON ARN HILL, WARMINSTER. 



By Mrs. M. E. Cunnington. 



On Aril Hill and the adjoining downs overlooking Warminster 

 are the golf links of the West Wilts Golf Clul). Two round barrows 

 situated on the extremity of Am Hill were marked by Sir Richard 

 Colt Hoare as uno[)ened, and tliere seems to 1)0 no record of their 

 having been opened since. ^ 



Recently (December, 1911) a teeing ground lias been constructed 

 over the larger and more northerly of these two barrows, completely 

 covering it up and making it no longer recognisable as a i)arrow. 

 Some of the material needed for this })urpose was obtained from 

 the smaller barrow, situated on the south side of the larger mound. 

 The smaller barrow has thus been completely destroyed, and 

 during the pnjcess two I>ronze Age burial urns were discovered. 



The first and larger urn seems to have been near the centre of 

 the barrow, and may have been the primary interment. The 

 vessel appears to have been a good deal crushed in the ground, and 

 it was broken into fragments in its removal, many pieces being 

 irretrievably lost. From the description given on the spot by one 

 of the workmen who removed the urn, it appears to have been 

 invortml over a deposit of burnt bones, near the centre of the 

 inouiid, oil the original surface level, with its inverted base not 

 iiioit? than a, foot b(dow the turf. 



The vessel (Fig. I) is a lineexam[)le of the cinerary urn ty[)e, with a 

 well-ornamented border. It measures 14Mn. in height, the diameter 

 of the liiii is llAiii., and of the base r)in., th(^ oinaiiuMilt'tl border 

 being o^.iii. (hicj). Th(; oniameiit consists of a series of diagoiuil 

 liiicsof '• impressed cord" pattcn'n forming a chevron design; there ixw^ 

 al.M) llnrt' rows of " inipr(^sse<l cord" ])attern drawn round thtM'essel 

 above and ludow tho (dun'roii, and tlift'o siiiiilarl\' executed lines 

 on I be inner edge of the rim, wliidi is liex'elled otl' In reeei\-(M hem. 



The wa.re is \-erv iiiipeifect ly leaked, of;! p;de i-eddish-biowii 

 j cohuir; the paste is sijariiigly mixed wiLh l)rokeii liinL, and the 



I ^ Aricifnt Wilts, South, Maj. of the Warminster Station, p. 50. Tiie 



i barrows art' not nimt iniicil in th^' t.'xt. 



