Bowl barrow 560m ENE of Week Farm: part of a round barrow cemetery on Week Down

Overview

Heritage Category: Scheduled Monument

List Entry Number: 1010003

Date first listed: 03-Nov-1961

Date of most recent amendment: 18-Jan-1995

Location

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

National Grid Reference: SZ 54235 77995

Summary

Legacy Record - This information may be included in the List Entry Details.

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 having been ploughed periodically in the past and having been partially excavated, the bowl barrow on Week Down is integral to the Week Down cemetery and will contain archaeological remains and environmental evidence relating to the cemetery and the landscape in which it was constructed.

History

Legacy Record - This information may be included in the List Entry Details.

Details

The monument includes a bowl barrow set on a hilltop position in a downland setting on the coast of the southern side of the Isle of Wight. To the west the land falls away to a valley which runs north-south. The barrow lies on the highest point of the hill. This is one of ten barrows which made up the Week Down cemetery. Only five of these now survive. The barrow has a mound which measures 30m east-west and 27m north-south and is c.0.5m high on the south side and c.1m high on the north side. Surrounding the mound is a ditch from which material was quarried during its construction. This has become infilled over the years and can no longer be seen at ground level, but survives as a buried feature c.4m wide. The barrow was the subject of an antiquarian excavation.

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: 22018

Legacy System: RSM

Sources

Other
Carr, R. D., Report on Week Down excavations (unpublished), 1968,

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 Digital, Culture, Media and Sport.