Summary
Bowl barrow, most likely of Bronze Age date.
Reasons for Designation
The bowl barrow at Lowster Hill, most likely of Bronze Age origin, is scheduled for the following principal reasons:
* Survival: as a well preserved earthwork monument representing the diversity of burial practices, beliefs and social organisation amongst early prehistoric communities;
* Potential: for the stratified archaeological deposits which retain considerable potential to provide invaluable evidence not only for the individuals buried within but also evidence for the ideology, variation in burial practices and social organisation of the communities and social networks that were using the landscape in this way;
* Group value: for its close proximity to other related and contemporary scheduled monuments such as the bowl barrows at Waterhouse Lodge (NHLE 1004039) and the group of tumuli on Sparrow Hill (1004037). The barrow also forms part of a multi-period landscape unencumbered by modern development and therefore offers a very high level of archaeological potential to enable understanding of the continuity and change in the use of the landscape from the Bronze Age up to the present day.
History
The treatment, burial and commemoration of the dead have been a distinctive part of human life for millennia, and these activities have often left physical remains. The remains of the dead have been dealt with in remarkably varied ways in the past and it appears that, in the prehistoric period especially, only a small proportion of the population received a burial which has left traces detectable using current methods. Round barrows are distinctive burial monuments which can represent both individual burials as well as larger burial groups. They are one of the main sources of information about life in this period.
The main period of round barrow construction occurred in the Early Bronze Age between about 2200-1500 BC (a period when cremation succeeded inhumation as the primary burial rite), although Neolithic examples are known from as early as 3000 BC. In general round barrows comprise a rounded earthen mound or stone cairn, the earthen examples usually having a surrounding ditch and occasionally an outer bank. They range greatly in size from just 5m in diameter to as much as 40m, with the mounds ranging from slight rises to as much as 4m in height. They occur either in isolation or grouped as cemeteries and often acted as a focus for burials in later periods. Round barrows are the most numerous of the various prehistoric funerary monuments.
The most common form of round barrow is referred to as a bowl barrow. These are inverted pudding bowl-shaped mounds with slopes of varying profile, sometimes with a surrounding ditch and occasionally an outer bank.
The bowl barrow on Lowster Hill is believed to be Bronze Age in origin but no archaeological excavations have taken place. It is located in close proximity to other scheduled barrows including the group of tumuli on Sparrow Hill (1004037), the bowl barrow at Waterhouse Plantation (NHLE1430568) and other designated sites including two moated manorial sites north and south of Tottington Church (NHLE 1003948 and 1003949 respectively), with the C14 church itself being listed at Grade II* (NHLE 1342814).
The barrow was first scheduled in January 1977.
Details
Bowl barrow at Lowster Hill, most likely of Bronze Age date.
PRINCIPAL ELEMENTS
This barrow survives as an earthen mound covered in bracken and nettles with a surrounding ditch. The mound measures approximately 26m in diameter with the growth of bracken and nettles indicating the line of the 4m wide ditch. The barrow is marked with a silver star on a 1m high pole, a sign used by the Ministry of Defence in recognition of their scheduled status.
EXTENT OF SCHEDULING
The scheduled area includes a 2m buffer zone around the combined circumference of the barrow and ditch.
EXCLUSIONS FROM SCHEDULING
The MoD star is excluded from the scheduling, although the ground beneath it is included.