Bowl barrow on Saxon Down, 240m north west of Glyndebourne Pit

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

Overview

Heritage Category:: Scheduled Monument
List Entry Number:: 1009947
Date first listed:: 27-Jan-1967

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Official list entry

Heritage Category:: Scheduled Monument
List Entry Number:: 1009947
Date first listed:: 27-Jan-1967
Date of most recent amendment:: 25-Jan-1995

Location

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

County:: East Sussex
District:: Lewes (District Authority)
Parish:: Glynde
National Park:: SOUTH DOWNS
National Grid Reference:: TQ 44535 10277

Reasons for Designation

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, sometimes 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 diversity of burial practices. There are over 10,000 surviving bowl barrows recorded nationally (many more have already been destroyed), occurring across most of lowland Britain. Often occupying prominent locations, they are a major historic element in the modern landscape and their considerable variation of form and longevity as a monument type provide important information on the diversity of beliefs and social organisations amongst early prehistoric communities. They are particularly representative of their period and a substantial proportion of surviving examples are considered worthy of protection.

Despite some distortion of its profile by modern spoil, the bowl barrow 240m north west of Glyndebourne Pit survives comparatively well and will contain archaeological remains and environmental evidence relating to the monument and the landscape in which it was constructed. The monument is one of a number of associated prehistoric and Anglo Saxon burial mounds situated on Saxon Down, illustrating the importance of this area for funerary practices over a period of around 3,000 years.

Details

The monument includes a bowl barrow situated on a saddle of chalk downland on the south eastern slope of Saxon Down. The barrow has a roughly circular mound 12.5m in diameter, which survives to a height of up to c.1.25m. A slight hollow in the centre of the mound indicates that the barrow has been partially excavated some time in the past. Surrounding the mound is a ditch from which material used to construct the barrow was excavated. This has become infilled over the years, but survives as a buried feature c.2m wide. Upcast earth excavated during modern improvements to a track which runs alongside the northern side of the monument partially overlies the eastern part of the barrow mound and ditch. The upcast earth, which now supports grass cover, has distorted the profile of the barrow, but the mound and ditch will survive as buried features beneath the modern spoil.

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:: 25480
Legacy System:: RSM

Sources

Books and journals
Grinsell, L V, 'Sussex Archaeological Collections' in Sussex Barrows, , Vol. 75, (1934), 263

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.