Kitchen Barrow: a long barrow on Kitchen Barrow Hill

Reasons for Designation

Long barrows were constructed as earthen or drystone mounds with flanking ditches and acted as funerary monuments during the Early and Middle Neolithic periods (3400-2400 BC). They represent the burial places of Britain's early farming communities and, as such, are amongst the oldest field monuments surviving visibly in the present landscape. Where investigated, long barrows appear to have been used for communal burial, often with only parts of the human remains having been selected for interment. Certain sites provide evidence for several phases of funerary monument preceding the barrow and, consequently, it is probable that long barrows acted as important ritual sites for local communities over a considerable period of time. Some 500 long barrows are recorded in England. As one of the few types of Neolithic structure to survive as earthworks, and due to their comparative rarity, their considerable age and their longevity as a monument type, all long barrows are considered to be nationally important.

The 180 long barrows of Hampshire, Wiltshire and Dorset form the densest and one of the most significant concentrations of monuments of this type in the country. Kitchen barrow is important, despite evidence for partial excavation, as it survives well and has considerable archaeological potential. The significance of the monument is considerably enhanced by the presence of other long barrows and contemporary sites in the immediate vicinity which indicate the intensity of settlement in the Neolithic period.

Details

The monument includes a long barrow, orientated SW-NE and set below the crest of a steep south-facing slope. The barrow mound has maximum dimensions of 33m long by 15m wide and survives to a height of 2m when viewed from the south-west. Flanking quarry ditches run parallel and contiguous to the barrow mound. These are 5m wide and up to 0.5m deep on the east side and 1m deep to the west. Central hollows on the surface of the mound suggest the site may once have been excavated. Worked flint artefacts, probably contemporary with the construction and use of the monument, are visible on the surface of the adjacent ploughed field.

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:

12168

Legacy System:

RSM

End of official list entry

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