Small bowl barrow 750m north east of Swan Lodge: part of a barrow cemetery on and around Salthouse Heath

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.

The bowl barrow 750m north east of Swan Lodge is one of several on Salthouse Heath which are of unusually small size and yet survive well. As a variant of the bowl barrow type they are rare and, according to the evidence from the excavation of other examples in the 1930s, they are likely, individually and as a group, to contain archaeological information concerning the later use of the large round barrow cemetery in which they are situated. In that context they have therefore a wider significance for the study of the character and development of the prehistoric population of the area.

Details

The monument includes a small barrow within a dispersed round barrow cemetery extending over an area of c.1.3 sq km on and around Salthouse Heath. The barrow is situated on the heath c.20m south of the minor road between Kelling and Cley, and is visible as a regularly formed mound of earth and gravel c.0.4m in height and covering a circular area c.3m in diameter. Approximately 30 similar small mounds were recorded on the heath between 1936 and 1939, in an area 200m to the east and south east of this, and four of them excavated at that time were found to cover urns of Middle Bronze Age type (c.1200-1000 BC). At least eight others are known to survive and are the subject of separate schedulings.

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:

21371

Legacy System:

RSM

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