Bowl barrow on Sugar Hill

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

Overview

Heritage Category:: Scheduled Monument
List Entry Number:: 1013346
Date first listed:: 10-Mar-1925

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Official list entry

Heritage Category:: Scheduled Monument
List Entry Number:: 1013346
Date first listed:: 10-Mar-1925
Date of most recent amendment:: 18-Jul-1991

Location

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

District:: Wiltshire (Unitary Authority)
Parish:: Aldbourne
National Grid Reference:: SU 24457 78203

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. Often occupying prominent locations, they are 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.

Despite partial excavation of the Sugar Hill site, much of the monument remains intact and survives well. It therefore has significant archaeological potential. The importance of the site is enhanced by its location in an area containing numerous other barrow mounds and barrow cemeteries, many of which are well documented through early excavation and which provide an indication of the intensity of Bronze Age settlement in the area.

Details

The monument includes a bowl barrow set below the crest of Sugar Hill near the top of a steep east-facing slope. The barrow mound is 20m in diameter and survives to a height of 2m. Surrounding the barrow mound, but no longer visible at ground level, is a ditch c.3m wide from which material was quarried during the construction of the mound. Partial excavation of the site by Canon Greenwell at the end of the 19th century, produced a cremation burial and worked flint flakes.

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:: 12204
Legacy System:: RSM

Sources

Books and journals
'Archaeologia' in Archaeologia, , Vol. 52, (), 53-4

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.