A bowl barrow 420m NNW of Ring-in-the-Mire, forming part of a round barrow cemetery on Gittisham Hill

Overview

Heritage Category: Scheduled Monument

List Entry Number: 1014247

Date first listed: 10-Apr-1996

Location

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

National Grid Reference: SY 15312 96313

Summary

Legacy Record - This information may be included in the List Entry Details.

Reasons for Designation

Round barrow cemeteries date to the Bronze Age (c.2000-700 BC). They comprise closely-spaced groups of up to 30 round barrows - rubble or earthen mounds covering single or multiple burials. Most cemeteries developed over a considerable period of time, often many centuries, and in some cases acted as a focus for burials as late as the early medieval period. They exhibit considerable diversity of burial rite, plan and form, frequently including several different types of round barrow, occasionally associated with earlier long barrows. Where large scale investigation has been undertaken around them, contemporary or later "flat" burials between the barrow mounds have often been revealed. Round barrow cemeteries occur across most of lowland Britain, with a marked concentration in Wessex. In some cases, they are clustered around other important contemporary monuments such as henges. Often occupying prominent locations, they are a major historic element in the modern landscape, whilst their diversity and their longevity as a monument type provide important information on the variety of beliefs and social organisation amongst early prehistoric communities. They are particularly representative of their period and a substantial proportion of surviving or partly-surviving examples are considered worthy of protection.

The Gittisham Hill barrow cemetery comprises the western area of one of the most extensive and densest concentrations of barrows in Devon. Limited archaeological excavations of some of the barrows in this concentration have revealed that they show a remarkable diversity in size and form, and in the nature of their funerary contents. This barrow is one of 13 that form the Gittisham Hill barrow cemetery. It survives in good condition and will retain archaeological and environmental evidence relating to the construction and use of the monument.

History

Legacy Record - This information may be included in the List Entry Details.

Details

The Gittisham Hill barrow cemetery is situated in south east Devon, 8km south of Honiton, on the high ground of an extensive Greensand plateau where it forms the watershed of the south-flowing River Sid. The monument includes a single bowl barrow situated within an area of heathland on the east side of Gittisham Hill, on ground which slopes gradually down to the south west. The barrow consists of a mound 12m in diameter and c.1m in height as seen from the south west, composed of dark soil and flinty stones up to 20cm in size. The barrow mound does not appear to have been surrounded by a ditch. A rounded pit 2.5m in diameter has been cut into the lower part of the west side of the mound and is now overgrown. Tangential to the eastern edge of the mound there is a 1m deep drainage ditch adjacent to a Devon bank hedge field boundary. Part of the upcast from this ditch forms a slight bank overlying the edge of the mound.

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: 27402

Legacy System: RSM

Sources

Books and journals
Grinsell, L V, 'Proceedings of the Devon Archaeological Society' in The Barrows of South and East Devon, , Vol. 41, (1983), 5-46
Simpson, S, Noble, S, 'Exeter Museums Archaeological Field Unit Report' in Archaeological Survey & Management Study of Areas of E Devon, , Vol. 93.38, (1993)

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 Digital, Culture, Media and Sport.