Two bowl barrows 740m south west of Southdown Farm

Reasons for Designation

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 organisations amongst early prehistoric communities. They are particularly representative of their period and a substantial proportion of surviving examples are considered worthy of protection.

Although they have suffered some disturbance in the past, the two bowl barrows 740m south west of Southdown Farm survive well and lie within an area of significant prehistoric activity, with a number of bowl barrows lying within a 2km radius. The mounds will contain evidence for primary and secondary burials, along with grave goods, which will provide information about prehistoric funerary practices and about the size of the local community at that time. The barrow mounds will also preserve environmental information in the buried original ground surface, predating the construction of the barrows and providing an insight into the landscape in which the monuments were set. In addition the mounds and their surrounding ditches will contain environmental evidence in the form of organic remains, which will relate both to the barrows and the wider landscape.

Details

The monument includes two bowl barrows oriented north east to south west lying just below the crest of a hill in the Cotswolds, 740m south west of Southdown Farm. The northern barrow mound measures 14m in diameter and is about 0.3m high and the southern mound has a diameter of 25m and is 0.7m high. Surrounding each mound is a ditch from which material was excavated during the construction of the barrow. These ditches are no longer visible at ground level, having become infilled over the years, but survive as buried features between 2m and 3m wide. The two barrows are the only survivors from a group of six barrows known to have existed at The Waste, many of which were largely destroyed for road material in the 1860s. One of them was found to contain a central cist with the remains of seven individuals interred in the Neolithic tradition. In 1931 one of the three remaining barrows was destroyed and large stone slabs from it were sold for the rock garden at Battledown Manor; a skull was also found when the mound was opened. The site of the six barrows was referred to as `the heathen burial place' in a charter of AD 816. The post and wire fence which borders the barrow on its east side is excluded from the scheduling, although the ground beneath it 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:

32369

Legacy System:

RSM

Sources

Books and journals
O`Neil, H E, Grinsell, L V, Proc of the Bristol and Gloucestershire Arch Soc in Gloucestershire Barrows, Vol. LXXIX, (1960), 118

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