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Sparsholt Down round barrow, 900m north of Seven Barrows round barrow cemetery

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

Overview

Heritage Category:: Scheduled Monument
List Entry Number:: 1018720
Date first listed:: 23-Feb-1971

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Official list entry

Heritage Category:: Scheduled Monument
List Entry Number:: 1018720
Date first listed:: 23-Feb-1971
Date of most recent amendment:: 02-Dec-1998

Location

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

County:: Oxfordshire
District:: Vale of White Horse (District Authority)
Parish:: Sparsholt
National Grid Reference:: SU 32847 83802

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.

The Sparsholt Down bowl barrow 900m north of Seven Barrows round barrow cemetery is one of a number of outliers of the well known Seven Barrows round barrow cemetery. It survives well and will contain archaeological evidence relating to its construction and the landscape in which the cemetery was built.

Details

The monument includes a Bronze Age bowl barrow situated 900m north of the Seven Barrows round barrow cemetery and 900m north east of Sevenbarrows House which lie around it. The barrow is one of a number which are outliers to the main cemetery on the spur of Sparsholt Down, several of which are the subject of separate schedulings. The barrow mound measures approximately 30m in diameter and stands up to 1.7m high. Its summit has a slight depression believed to represent the site of an antiquarian investigation of the barrow, although no details are known. Originally surrounding the mound, but no longer visible at ground level was a quarry ditch from which material was obtained during the construction of the monument. Although now buried below the present ground level this will survive as a buried feature approximately 2.5m 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.

Legacy

The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.

Legacy System number:: 28195
Legacy System:: RSM

Sources

Other
Multiple, Scheduled Monuments - Berkshire, (1996)

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.