Bowl barrow on Waltham Down, 200m east of cross roads: part of Waltham Down round barrow cemetery

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

Overview

Heritage Category:: Scheduled Monument
List Entry Number:: 1009914
Date first listed:: 26-Jun-1992

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Official list entry

Heritage Category:: Scheduled Monument
List Entry Number:: 1009914
Date first listed:: 26-Jun-1992

Location

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

County:: West Sussex
District:: Chichester (District Authority)
Parish:: East Dean
National Park:: SOUTH DOWNS
National Grid Reference:: SU 92860 14517

Reasons for Designation

Round barrow cemeteries date to the Bronze Age (c.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, occasionally associated with earlier long barrows. Where large scale investigation has been undertaken around them, contemporary or later "flat" burials between the barrow mounds have often been revealed. Round barrow cemeteries occur across most of lowland Britain, with a marked concentration in Wessex. In some cases, they are clustered around other important contemporary monuments such as henges. Often occupying prominent locations, they are a major historic element in the modern landscape, whilst their diversity and their longevity as a monument type provide important information on the variety of beliefs and social organisation amongst early prehistoric communities. They are particularly representative of their period and a substantial proportion of surviving or partly-surviving examples are considered worthy of protection.

Despite damage likely to have been caused by tree roots, the bowl barrow on Waltham Down, 200m east of the cross roads, survives comparatively well and contains archaeological remains and environmental evidence relating to the monument and the landscape in which it was constructed.

Details

The monument includes a bowl barrow situated on the crest of a chalk ridge running west from Waltham Down. It forms part of a linear round barrow cemetery consisting of five bowl barrows spread over a distance of 350m. This Bronze Age burial mound is the central barrow within the group of five and has a mound 21.5m in diameter and 1.5m high. A surrounding ditch, from which material was quarried during the construction of the monument, is no longer visible at ground level, having become infilled over the years. It does however survive as a buried feature c.3m wide.

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:: 20061
Legacy System:: RSM

Sources

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

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.