Three bowl barrows: part of a barrow cemetery west of Barbury Castle

Reasons for Designation

Round barrow cemeteries date to the Bronze Age (2000-700bc). 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.

The group of barrows west of Barbury castle survives comparatively well and its importance is enhanced by the presence of a saucer barrow also within the cemetery. Saucer barrows are rare nationally with only about 60 examples known.

Details

The monument includes three bowl barrows aligned east-west and set on a prominent ridge-top in an area of undulating chalk downland. The western barrow mound is 18m in diameter and 1m high; the central mound is 15m across and 0.7m high while the eastern mound has been levelled and is no longer visible as an earthwork. Each of the barrow mounds is surrounded by a ditch from which material was quarried during construction of the monument. Although no longer visible at ground level these survive as buried features c.2m wide

MAP EXTRACT The site of the monument is shown on the attached map extract.

Legacy

The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.

Legacy System number:

12309

Legacy System:

RSM

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