Bowl barrow 400m north of the A303 on Countess Farm

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.

Despite having been levelled by cultivation, the bowl barrow 400m north of the A303 will contain archaeological remains and environmental evidence relating to the monument and the landscape in which it was constructed.

Details

The monument includes a levelled bowl barrow located 400m north of the A303, 50m south west of Halfmoon Clump and is situated on a raised plateau which lies between the River Avon and Stonehenge. The barrow mound is now difficult to identify on the ground. However, it is visible as a circular chalk spread on aerial photographs from which the diameter has been calculated to be c.20m. Surrounding the mound is a ditch from which material was quarried during its construction. This has become infilled over the years but survives as a buried feature c.2m wide, giving the barrow an overall diameter of c.24m.

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:

10414

Legacy System:

RSM

Sources

Other

End of official list entry

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