Bowl barrow 700m south-east of Windmill Hill

Reasons for Designation

A small number of areas in southern England appear to have acted as foci for ceremonial and ritual activity during the Neolithic and Early Bronze Age periods. Two of the best known and earliest recognised, with references in the 17th century, are around Avebury and Stonehenge, now jointly designated as a World Heritage Site. In the Avebury area, the henge monument itself, the West Kennet Avenue, the Sanctuary, West Kennet long barrow, Windmill Hill causewayed enclosure and the enigmatic Silbury Hill are well-known. Whilst the other Neolithic long barrows, the many Bronze Age round barrows and other associated sites are less well-known, together they define one of the richest and most varied areas of Neolithic and Bronze Age ceremonial monuments in the country. Bowl barrows, the most numerous form of round barrow, are funerary monuments dating from the Late Neolithic period to the Late Bronze Age, with most examples belonging to the period 2400-1500 BC. They were constructed as earthen or rubble mounds, normally ditched, which covered single or multiple burials. They occur either in isolation or grouped as cemeteries and often acted as a focus for burials in later periods. Often superficially similar, although differing widely in size, they exhibit regional variations in form and a diversity of burial practices. There are over 10,000 surviving bowl barrows recorded nationally and around 320 in the Avebury area. This group of monuments will provide important information on the development of this area during the Late Neolithic and Bronze Age periods. All surviving examples are considered worthy of protection.

Despite disturbance caused by cultivation, the bowl barrow 700m south-east of Windmill Hill survives as a recognisable earthwork and contains archaeological remains and environmental evidence relating to the monument and the landscape in which it was constructed.

Details

The monument includes one of a pair of bowl barrows, located on a gentle south facing slope, overlooking the village of Avebury. The barrow has a mound 30m in diameter and 0.9m high. Surrounding this, but no longer visible at ground level, is a ditch from which material was quarried during the construction of the monument. This has become infilled over the years but survives as a buried feature c.3m wide. The fence crossing the monument is excluded from the scheduling but the ground beneath is included.

MAP EXTRACT The site of the monument is shown on the attached map extract. It includes a 2 metre boundary around the archaeological features, considered to be essential for the monument's support and preservation.

Legacy

The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.

Legacy System number:

21709

Legacy System:

RSM

Sources

Other
RCHM(E), NAR No.: SU 07 SE 5, (1973)

End of official list entry

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