On the western side of the barrow, a rectangular pit had been dug which measured 4.7 metres (15.5 feet) from east to west and 2.3 metres (7.75) feet from north to south, as well as to a depth of at least 1.5 metres (5 feet) below the mound's surface. Its appearance suggested that care had been taken when both digging and filling it in; at its bottom was a deposit of lumpy chalk along with organic material that archaeologists in the 1930s could not identify, but which likely represented the item originally placed within the pit. Although no datable material was found within this pit, analysis of land mollusc shells recovered from both the top and the bottom of the pit suggested that it was broadly contemporary in date with the construction of the barrow itself. The archaeologist responsible for excavating this pit, Ronald Jessup, therefore suggested that the "burial pit" was "likely to postdate the mound only by a short period". He thought that it may have contained "a ritual offering made at the completion of the barrow".