Prehistoric linear boundary on Barlavington Down, 550m north east of Dog Kennels

Reasons for Designation

Linear boundaries are substantial earthwork features comprising single or multiple ditches and banks which may extend over distances varying between less than 1km to over 10km. They survive as earthworks or as linear features visible as cropmarks on aerial photographs or as a combination of both. The evidence of excavation and study of associated monuments demonstrate that their construction spans the millennium from the Middle Bronze Age, although they may have been re-used later. The scale of many linear boundaries has been taken to indicate that they were constructed by large social groups and were used to mark important boundaries in the landscape; their impressive scale displaying the corporate prestige of their builders. They would have been powerful symbols, often with religious associations, used to define and order the territorial holdings of those groups who constructed them. Linear earthworks are of considerable importance for the analysis of settlement and land use in the Bronze Age; all well preserved examples will normally merit statutory protection.

Despite some levelling by modern cultivation, the prehistoric linear boundary on Barlavington Down survives comparatively well and will retain important archaeological and environmental information relating to the construction and original purpose of the monument. The linear boundary forms part of a group of linear earthworks and round barrows which cluster along this part of the downland ridge. These monuments are broadly contemporary and their close association will provide evidence for the relationship between land division and funerary practices during the later prehistoric period.

Details

The monument includes part of an L-shaped linear boundary dating to the later prehistoric period, constructed across the southern slope of a chalk hill which forms part of the Sussex Downs. The boundary has a ditch up to 7m wide and 0.3m deep flanked to the south by a bank up to 10m wide and 1m high. Records suggest that the boundary continues to the north west beyond the area of protection, but the earthworks have here been levelled by regular modern ploughing and this area is therefore not included in the scheduling.

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:

29288

Legacy System:

RSM

End of official list entry

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