Three bowl barrows forming part of Bratley Plain round barrow cemetery
List Entry Summary
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.
Name: Three bowl barrows forming part of Bratley Plain round barrow cemetery
List entry Number: 1017572
Location
The monument may lie within the boundary of more than one authority.
County: Hampshire
District: New Forest
District Type: District Authority
Parish: Ellingham, Harbridge and Ibsley
National Park: NEW FOREST
Grade: Not applicable to this List entry.
Date first scheduled: 09-Sep-1992
Date of most recent amendment: Not applicable to this List entry.
Legacy System Information
The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.
Legacy System: RSM
UID: 20319
Asset Groupings
This list entry does not comprise part of an Asset Grouping. Asset Groupings are not part of the official record but are added later for information.
List entry Description
Summary of Monument
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 Bratley Plain round barrow cemetery contains a significantly large number
of small undisturbed barrows. The survival of so many small barrows within a
cemetery is a particularly uncommon phenomenon in southern England. Although
some of the larger mounds have been partially disturbed, all the barrows
retain undisturbed remains and the cemetery as a whole has considerable
archaeological potential. The New Forest region is known to have been
important in terms of lowland Bronze Age occupation and a considerable amount
of archaeological evidence has survived because of a lack of agricultural
activity, the result of later climatic deterioration, development of heath and
the establishment of a Royal Forest.
History
Legacy Record - This information may be included in the List Entry Details.
Details
This monument includes three bowl barrows forming part of Bratley Plain round
barrow cemetery situated on lowland heath overlooking Backley Bottom. The two
southern barrow mounds both measure 6m in diameter and stand up to 0.2m high.
The northern mound measures 5m in diameter and is 0.2m high. Although no
longer visible at ground level, ditches, from which material was quarried
during the construction of the barrows, surround each mound. These have
become infilled over the years but survive as buried features c.1m wide.
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.
Selected Sources
National Grid Reference: SU 21736 08997
Map
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This copy shows the entry on 24-Apr-2018 at 03:54:43.
End of official listing