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. 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 variety of burial practices. There are over
10,000 surviving bowl barrows recorded nationally and at least 320 in the
Stonehenge area. This group of monuments will provide important information
on the development of this area during the Late Neolithic and Bronze Age
periods.
Both of the two bowl barrows on Durrington Down survive and, despite the
reduced height of the eastern barrow, both will contain archaeological remains
and environmental evidence relating to the monument and the landscape in which
it was constructed.
Details
The monument includes two bowl barrows aligned east-west and situated 150m
south of The Packway on Durrington Down. The western barrow mound is 14m in
diameter and survives to a height of 1.25m. The barrow 10m to the north east
survives as a slight earthwork. This is now difficult to define on the ground
but is visible on aerial photographs and has a diameter of c.18m. Surrounding
each mound is a ditch from which material was quarried during their
construction. The ditch of the western barrow has become partially infilled
over the years but survives as a depression some 2.5m wide, giving an overall
diameter to the barrow of 19m. The ditch of the eastern barrow survives as a
buried feature of c.2m wide, giving an overall diameter of 22m. The western
barrow was partially excavated in the late 18th to early 19th century.
The metalled track and post and wire fence which crosses the western barrow on
its western edge are 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.
