Platform barrow 360m north east of The Mill House

Listed on the National Heritage List for England. Search over 400,000 listed places

Overview

Heritage Category:: Scheduled Monument
List Entry Number:: 1016705
Date first listed:: 07-Jul-1999

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Official list entry

Heritage Category:: Scheduled Monument
List Entry Number:: 1016705
Date first listed:: 07-Jul-1999

Location

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

County:: West Sussex
District:: Arun (District Authority)
Parish:: Findon
National Park:: SOUTH DOWNS
National Grid Reference:: TQ 13365 09437

Reasons for Designation

Platform barrows, funerary monuments dating to the Bronze Age (2000-700 BC), are the rarest of the recognised types of round barrow, with fewer than 50 examples recorded nationally. They occur widely across southern England with a marked concentration in East and West Sussex and can occur either in barrow cemeteries (closely-spaced groups of barrows) or singly. They were constructed as low, flat-topped mounds of earth surrounded by a shallow ditch, occasionally crossed by an entrance causeway. None of the known examples stands higher than 1m above ground level, and most are considerably lower than this. Due to their comparative visual insignificance when compared to the larger types of round barrow, few were explored by 19th century antiquarians. As a result, few platform barrows are disturbed by excavation and, consequently, they remain a poorly understood class of monument. Their importance lies in their potential for illustrating the diversity of beliefs and burial practices in the Bronze Age and, due to their extreme rarity and considerable fragility, all identified platform barrows would normally be considered to be of national importance.

The platform barrow 360m north east of The Mill House survives well and will contain archaeological and environmental evidence relating to the monument and the landscape in which it was constructed. Its close association with a roughly contemporary saucer barrow will provide additional evidence for ceremonial and burial practices during the later prehistoric period.

Details

The monument includes a platform barrow situated on a chalk spur which forms part of the Sussex Downs. The barrow has a low circular, flat-topped mound about 13m in diameter and 0.3m high. The mound is surrounded by a ditch from which material used to construct the barrow was excavated. This has become partly infilled over the years, but survives as a very slight depression around 1m wide. A saucer barrow 80m to the south is the subject of a separate 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:: 32248
Legacy System:: RSM

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 Culture, Media and Sport.