Damerham Archaeology Project

Pegasus Barrow

The second long barrow, looking north from its southern end. The remnant mound can just be made out as a slight rise and fall in the surface of the field.

The discovery of a second long barrow was unexpected, to say the least. It happened early in 2008, before the newly-formed project team had even met. While sorting out an initial site visit, Martyn Barber was looking at the Windows Live Local website, which features aerial imagery of the Damerham area dating from c1998/1999. Midway between St George’s Church – the agreed meeting point – and the location of the cropmarks was an interesting soilmark which looked remarkably long barrow-like.

The second long barrow, looking east across its long profile.

Confirmation had to wait until September when the site was visited during the first stint of fieldwork. This confirmed the presence of a low mound, barely visible under grass (and a fair amount of horse manure) around 25 metres in length. This is considerably smaller than Dampney Barrow, of course, but still within the size range of this class of monument. The mound was investigated using geophysics in the summer of 2009, and then by a couple of excavation trenches in 2010. The name ‘Pegasus Barrow’ was chosen by our local volunteers in honour of the equestrian residents of the field in which the barrow lies.