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Saucer barrow and bowl barrow 250m north of A344, south of the Lesser Cursus

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

Overview

Heritage Category:: Scheduled Monument
List Entry Number:: 1010894
Date first listed:: 09-Jun-1952

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Official list entry

Heritage Category:: Scheduled Monument
List Entry Number:: 1010894
Date first listed:: 09-Jun-1952
Date of most recent amendment:: 19-Jun-1995

Location

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

District:: Wiltshire (Unitary Authority)
Parish:: Winterbourne Stoke
National Grid Reference:: SU 10397 43104

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. Saucer barrows are funerary monuments of the Early Bronze Age. They occur either in isolation or in round barrow cemeteries and were constructed as a circular area of level ground defined by a bank and internal ditch and largely occupied by a single low, squat mound covering one or more burials, usually in a pit. The burials, either inhumations or cremations, are sometimes accompanied by pottery vessels, tools and personal ornaments. Saucer barrows are one of the rarest recognised forms of round barrow, with about 60 examples nationally, most of which are in Wessex. At least ten examples are known from the Stonehenge area. The presence of grave goods within the barrows provides important evidence for chronological and cultural links amongst prehistoric communities over a wide area of southern England, as well as providing an insight into their beliefs and social organisation.

Bowl barrows, the most numerous form of round barrow, are funerary monuments dating from the Late Neolithic period to the Late Bronze Age. They were constructed as earthen or rubble mounds, normally ditched, which covered single or multiple burials. Often superficially similar, although differing widely in size, they exhibit regional variations in form and a variety of burial practices. The burials, either inhumations or cremations, are sometimes accompanied by pottery vessels, tools and personal ornaments. There are over 10,000 surviving bowl barrows recorded nationally and at least 320 in the Stonehenge area. Despite being levelled by cultivation, the bowl barrow and the saucer barrow 250m north of the A344 are known from partial excavation to contain archaeological remains and environmental evidence relating to the monument and the landscape in which it was constructed.

Details

The monument includes a levelled saucer barrow and a levelled bowl barrow located 250m north of the A344 and south of the Lesser Cursus, situated on a gentle south facing slope on Winterbourne Stoke Down. The barrows are aligned broadly north west-south east with the bowl barrow to the north west and the saucer barrow 20m to the south east. The barrows are now difficult to identify on the ground but partial excavation in 1961 has shown the mound of the bowl barrow to be 13m in diameter and surrounded by a quarry ditch 4.5m wide giving the barrow an overall diameter of 22m. Partial excavation of the saucer barrow revealed a quarry ditch 24m in diameter surrounding the mound. The outer bank of the saucer barrow is visible on aerial photographs as a chalk spread 30m overall diameter. Partial excavation in the 19th century produced primary cremations in each of the barrows. A cremation in an oval grave was found in the saucer barrow during the 1961 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:: 10466
Legacy System:: RSM

Sources

Books and journals
Grinsell, LV, The Victoria History of the County of Wiltshire: Volume V, (1957), 202
Grinsell, LV, The Victoria History of the County of Wiltshire: Volume V, (1957), 224
Hoare, R C, Ancient History of Wiltshire, (1812), 165
RCHME, , Stonehenge and its Environs, (1979), 6
'Wiltshire Archaeological Magazine' in Excavations and Fieldwork in Wiltshire 1961, (1963), 242
'Wiltshire Archaeological Magazine' in Excavations and Fieldwork in Wiltshire 1961, (1963), 242
Gingell, C, 'Wiltshire Archaeological Magazine' in Excavations of Twelve Wiltshire Round Barrows, (1988), 19-76
Gingell, C, 'Wiltshire Archaeological Magazine' in Excavations of Twelve Wiltshire Round Barrows, (1988), 19-76

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.