Bowl barrow, the easternmost of six in Eggringe Wood

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

Overview

Heritage Category:: Scheduled Monument
List Entry Number:: 1012339
Date first listed:: 17-Jan-1975

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Location

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Official list entry

Heritage Category:: Scheduled Monument
List Entry Number:: 1012339
Date first listed:: 17-Jan-1975
Date of most recent amendment:: 29-Jul-1991

Location

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

County:: Kent
District:: Canterbury (District Authority)
Parish:: Petham
National Grid Reference:: TR 10120 50818

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. Their ubiquity and their tendency to occupy prominent locations makes them 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.

Although this monument has suffered erosion to a greater degree than most in the locality, its archaeological potential remains significant because both the original ground surface, with its evidence of the pre-barrow land-use and environment, and any burials inserted below the ground level will survive. The easternmost barrow in Eggringe Wood is one of a group of six similar examples in the immediate locality. Such a concentration is unusual in Kent and together the barrows demonstrate the importance of the area for burial in the Bronze Age.

Details

The monument includes a bowl barrow which comprises an earthen mound encircled by a now-infilled quarry ditch. The mound is small compared with several examples in the locality, measuring some 16m in diameter and standing to 0.4m above the level of the surrounding land. The surrounding ditch has been completely obscured by soil eroded from the mound. The mound and ditch together have a diameter of 20m.

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:: 12827
Legacy System:: RSM

Sources

Other
Darvill, T., MPP Single Monument Class Description - Bowl Barrows, (1988)
Kent - bowl barrow in Eggringe Wood, TR05 SW,

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.