Long barrow on Beacon Hill, 160m north west of the windmill

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 examples of long barrows and long cairns, their counterparts in the uplands, are recorded nationally. 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.

Despite being levelled, the long barrow on Beacon Hill 160m north west of the windmill will contain archaeological and environmental remains relating to its construction and use. Around 200m to the NNW is a further long barrow, which is the subject of a separate scheduling. The close association of these similarly aligned monuments illustrates the use of this area of downland as a focus for funerary rites during the Neolithic period.

Details

The monument includes a north west-south east aligned long barrow situated on a south facing downland slope, some 400m north of the Channel coast just to the east of Brighton. Discovered by the analysis of an aerial photograph taken in the dry summer of 1995, the long barrow is visible in the form of parch marks, or areas of dryer vegetation, which represent a pair of curving ditches cut into the underlying chalk. These are each around 80m long and originally flanked a now levelled earthen mound. The broader end of the barrow faces the lower ground to the south east. The monument has been partly disturbed by modern landscaping work associated with the construction of the miniature golf course which now occupies the hillslope.

MAP EXTRACT The site of the monument is shown on the attached map extract. It includes a 5 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:

29234

Legacy System:

RSM

Sources

Other
15 August, RCHME, NMR 15380 TQ3602/3 Frame No. 17, (1995)

End of official list entry

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