Bowl barrow 50m west of the Battery Hill triangulation point

Reasons for Designation

Since 1916 the Porton Down Range has been used for military purposes. As on the Salisbury Plain Training Area, this has meant that it has not been subject to the intensive arable farming seen elsewhere on the Wessex chalk. Porton, as a result, is one of very few surviving areas of uncultivated chalk downland in England and contains a range of well-preserved archaeological sites, many of Neolithic or Bronze Age date. These include long barrows and round barrows, flint mines, and evidence for settlement, land division and agriculture. 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 organisation 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 50m west of the Battery Hill triangulation point is a well preserved example of its class. Despite the insertion of the flagpole base the barrow exhibits a largely original profile with, in places, a pronounced ditch surrounding the mound. The barrow will contain archaeological remains providing information about Bronze Age beliefs, economy and environment.

Details

The monument includes a ditched bowl barrow, lying on a gentle north west facing slope immediately below the crest of Battery Hill. The barrow has a mound 20m in diameter and 1m high on the summit of which a flagpole base and anchor points have been inserted. On its western side is a depression 3.5m by 2m and up to 0.8m deep. In places around the mound a ditch can be seen, 3m wide and up to 0.3m deep. The ditch, from which material to construct the mound was quarried survives, where not visible on the surface, as a buried feature. Excluded from the scheduling are the flagpole base and anchor points together with the archaeological site marker to the south of the barrow although the ground beneath them is included.

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:

26752

Legacy System:

RSM

End of official list entry

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