Platform barrow on Bepton Down

Reasons for Designation

Platform barrows, funerary monuments dating to the Bronze Age (2000-700 BC), are the rarest of the recognised types of round barrow, with fewer than 50 examples recorded nationally. They occur widely across southern England with a marked concentration in East and West Sussex and can occur either in barrow cemeteries (closely-spaced groups of barrows) or singly. They were constructed as low, flat-topped mounds of earth surrounded by a shallow ditch, occasionally crossed by an entrance causeway. None of the known examples stands higher than 1m above ground level, and most are considerably lower than this. Due to their comparative visual insignificance when compared to the larger types of round barrow, few were explored by 19th century antiquarians. As a result, few platform barrows are disturbed by excavation and, consequently, they remain a poorly understood class of monument. Their importance lies in their potential for illustrating the diversity of beliefs and burial practices in the Bronze Age and, due to their extreme rarity and considerable fragility, all identified platform barrows would normally be considered to be of national importance.

Despite some disturbance to the Bepton Down monument by cultivation, it survives comparatively well and has potential for the recovery of archaeological remains and environmental evidence relating to the landscape in which the monument was constructed.

Details

The monument includes a platform barrow set on a gentle south facing slope in an area of chalk downland. The barrow consists of a central flat topped mound or platform 18m in diameter and standing to a height of 0.6m. Around the platform is a ditch from which material was quarried during the construction of the monument. This has become partly infilled over the years but survives to the south of the platform as a depression 3.5m wide and 0.4m deep and to the north as a buried feature c.3.5m wide. Beyond the ditch are the remains of the outer bank which survives as a spread concentration of chalk c.4m wide and which in 1934 was recorded as being a broad low bank.

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:

20019

Legacy System:

RSM

Sources

Books and journals
Grinsell, L V, Sussex Archaeological Collections in Sussex Barrows, Vol. 75, (1934)

End of official list entry

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