Battlegore Burial Chamber facts for kids

Battlegore Burial Chamber is an amazing ancient site in Williton, Somerset, England. It was built during the Bronze Age, a time long ago when people started using bronze for tools and weapons. This special place is made up of three large, round burial mounds, called barrows. There might also be a longer burial mound with a stone room inside.

Archaeologists, who are like history detectives, dug up parts of the site in 1931. A man named George Gray led this work. The name "Battlegore" sounds like "battleground." This is because people in the past thought it was where a Danish (Viking) raid happened around 918 AD or 988 AD. But the site itself is much older! People have called it "Bytelgore" since at least the 1300s. Today, Battlegore is protected as an ancient monument, which means it's a very important historical place.

Exploring the Ancient Mounds

Battlegore Burial Chamber has several interesting parts to explore. Let's look at the different mounds and what was found inside them.

The Northern Mound

The mound furthest to the north is quite large. It measures about 18 meters (or 59 feet) across. It stands about 1 meter (or 3 feet) high. A shallow ditch, about 45 meters (or 148 feet) wide, partly surrounds it.

About 20 meters (or 66 feet) east of this big mound, there's a smaller one. It's about 6.5 meters (or 21 feet) wide and only 25 centimeters (or 10 inches) high. When George Gray dug here, he found four other small mounds. But he couldn't figure out why they were there. Inside the northern mound, archaeologists found a large pot, called an urn. This urn held the cremated remains of a person. This means the person's body was burned, and their ashes were placed in the pot.

The Southern Mounds

Just south of the northern mound is another one of the three main round mounds. In 1969, this mound was about 8 feet (or 2.4 meters) high.

Between this mound and the very last one to the south, there's a circular ditch. This ditch might actually be another burial mound that has mostly disappeared over time. The southernmost mound is the largest of the three. It's about 27 meters (or 89 feet) across and 1.8 meters (or 6 feet) high. This mound is in better condition than the others. That's because it has not been ploughed, meaning farmers haven't used it for crops. Ploughing can damage old historical sites.

The Stone Chamber

The site also has a "chambered barrow." This is a burial mound that contains a room made of large stones. There are three main stones here. The biggest stone is 3.1 meters (or 10 feet) long, 1.2 meters (or 4 feet) wide, and 0.7 meters (or 2 feet) deep. The second largest is 1.6 meters (or 5 feet) long, 0.8 meters (or 3 feet) wide, and 0.5 meters (or 2 feet) deep. The smallest stone is 1 meter (or 3 feet) long, 0.5 meters (or 2 feet) wide, and 0.3 meters (or 1 foot) deep.

There's an old legend about these stones. People used to say that the devil and a giant had a fight. They supposedly threw these huge stones around, and that's how they ended up at Battlegore!

Ancient Treasures Found

Archaeologists have found many interesting artifacts at Battlegore. Artifacts are objects made by people long ago. These finds help us understand how ancient people lived.

They discovered Neolithic pottery, which are pieces of pots from an even older time than the Bronze Age. They also found flint tools and weapons. Flint is a type of stone that can be shaped into sharp edges.

Even more exciting, they found items made of bronze. These include a "knife dagger," which is a small knife that looks like a dagger. They also found a broken dagger, a rapier (a long, thin sword), a spearhead, and a winged axe. These bronze items show how skilled people were at making tools and weapons during the Bronze Age. North of Battlegore, archaeologists also found many flint artifacts from the Mesolithic period, which is another very ancient time.