Six of the eight round barrows making up a nucleated round barrow cemetery 100m south of Fargo Road

Listed on the National Heritage List for England. Search over 400,000 listed places

Overview

Heritage Category:: Scheduled Monument
List Entry Number:: 1009062
Date first listed:: 17-Mar-1965

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Official list entry

Heritage Category:: Scheduled Monument
List Entry Number:: 1009062
Date first listed:: 17-Mar-1965
Date of most recent amendment:: 27-Mar-1995

Location

The building or site itself may lie within the boundary of more than one authority.

District:: Wiltshire (Unitary Authority)
Parish:: Durrington
National Grid Reference:: SU 12159 43577

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 Bronze Age periods. Two of the best known and earliest recognised areas are around Avebury and Stonehenge, now jointly designated as a World Heritage Site. The area of chalk downland which surrounds Stonehenge contains one of the densest and most varied groups of Neolithic and Bronze Age field monuments in Britain. Included within the area are Stonehenge itself, the Stonehenge cursus, the Durrington Walls henge, and a variety of burial monuments, many grouped into cemeteries. The area has been the subject of archaeological research since the 18th century when Stukeley recorded many of the monuments and partially excavated a number of the burial mounds. More recently, the collection of artefacts from the surfaces of ploughed fields has supplemented the evidence for ritual and burial by revealing the intensity of contemporary settlement and land-use. In view of the importance of the area, all ceremonial and sepulchral monuments of this period which retain significant archaeological remains are identified as nationally important. Round barrow cemeteries date to the Bronze Age (2000-700 BC). They comprise closely spaced groups of up to 30 round barrows - rubble or earthen mounds covering single or multiple burials. Most cemeteries developed over a considerable period of time, often many centuries, and in some cases acted as a focus for burials as late as the early medieval period. They exhibit considerable diversity of burial rite, plan and form, frequently including several different types of round barrow and occasionally associated with earlier long barrows. Where investigation beyond the round barrows has occurred, contemporary or later 'flat' burials between the barrow mounds have often been revealed. Round barrow cemeteries occur across most of lowland England with a marked concentration in Wessex. In some cases they are clustered around other important contemporary monuments, as is the case both here and at Avebury. Often occupying prominent positions, they are a major historic element in the modern landscape, while their diversity and their longevity as a monument type provide important information on the variety of beliefs and social organisation amongst early prehistoric communities.

These barrows, forming part of the round barrow cemetery south of Fargo Road, are known from partial excavation to contain archaeological remains and environmental evidence relating to the monument and the landscape in which it was constructed. The monument also contains examples of rare saucer barrows, of which there are only 60 known examples.

Details

The monument includes six of the eight round barrows which make up a nucleated cemetery situated south of Fargo Road on Durrington Down. This group includes four bowl barrows and two saucer barrows. Only two of the barrows, a saucer and a bowl barrow, are now visible as earthworks, the remainder having been levelled by ploughing. The visible saucer barrow forms the southernmost barrow of the cemetery and the second saucer barrow is located 2m to the north west of it. A fifth bowl barrow is located c.50m to the east, and a sixth 50m to the north; both are the subject of separate schedulings. The mound of the upstanding bowl barrow is 1.2m high and 14m in diameter, and is surrounded by a ditch 2m wide which survives as a slight earthwork. The mound of the upstanding saucer barrow is 20m in diameter and is surrounded by a ditch 3.5m wide and 0.75m deep and an outer bank 3.5m wide and 0.75m high, giving an overall diameter of 34m. The levelled barrows are represented on aerial photographs, the County Series Ordnance Survey 6" map of 1887 and the 25" map of 1924, from which their mounds have been calculated as between 15m and 20m in diameter. All are surrounded by ditches from which material was quarried during their construction. These have become infilled over the years but survive as buried features c.2m wide, giving overall diameters for the bowl barrows ranging between c.19m and c.24m. The overall diameter of the second saucer barrow is 30m. The majority of the barrows have been partially excavated in the 19th century and contained either cremations or inhumations together with accompanying grave goods. The post and wire fence which crosses the mound of the northernmost barrow is excluded from the scheduling but the ground beneath it 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:: 10238
Legacy System:: RSM

Sources

Books and journals
Grinsell, LV, The Victoria History of the County of Wiltshire: Volume V, (1957), 223
Grinsell, LV, The Victoria History of the County of Wiltshire: Volume V, (1957), 171
Grinsell, LV, The Victoria History of the County of Wiltshire: Volume V, (1957), 223
Grinsell, LV, The Victoria History of the County of Wiltshire: Volume V, (1957), 170
Grinsell, LV, The Victoria History of the County of Wiltshire: Volume V, (1957), 171
Hoare, R C, Ancient History of Wiltshire, (1812), 167
Hoare, R C, Ancient History of Wiltshire, (1812), 167
Hoare, R C, Ancient History of Wiltshire, (1812), 167
Hoare, R C, Ancient History of Wiltshire, (1812), 167
Hoare, R C, Ancient History of Wiltshire, (1812), 167
Other

Legal

This monument is scheduled under the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Areas Act 1979 as amended as it appears to the Secretary of State to be of national importance. This entry is a copy, the original is held by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport.