Reasons for Designation
Earthen barrows are the most visually spectacular survivals of a wide variety
of funerary monuments in Britain dating to the Roman period. Constructed as
steep-sided conical mounds, usually of considerable size and occasionally with
an encircling bank or ditch, they covered one or more burials, generally
believed to be those of high-ranking individuals. The burials were mainly
cremations, although inhumations have been recorded, and were often deposited
with accompanying grave goods in chambers or cists constructed of wood, tile
or stone sealed beneath the barrow mound. Occasionally the mound appears to
have been built directly over a funeral pyre. The barrows usually occur
singly, although they can be grouped into "cemeteries" of up to ten examples.
They are sited in a variety of locations but often occur near Roman roads. A
small number of barrows were of particularly elaborate construction, with
masonry revetment walls or radial internal walls. Roman barrows are rare
nationally, with less than 150 recorded examples, and are generally restricted
to lowland England with the majority in East Anglia. The earliest examples
date to the first decades of the Roman occupation and occur mainly within this
East Anglian concentration. It has been suggested that they are the graves of
native British aristocrats who chose to perpetuate aspects of Iron Age burial
practice. The majority of the barrows were constructed in the early second
century AD but by the end of that century the fashion for barrow building
appears to have ended. Occasionally the barrows were reused when secondary
Anglo-Saxon burials were dug into the mound. Many barrows were subjected to
cursory investigation by antiquarians in the 19th century and, as little
investigation to modern standards has taken place, they remain generally
poorly understood. As a rare monument type which exhibits a wide diversity of
burial tradition all Roman barrows, unless significantly damaged, are
identified as nationally important.
Details
The monument includes a Roman barrow situated 380m north of Hill Farm, on the
crest of Chesterton Hill, which has good visibility especially to the north
and east. The barrow lies approximately 2.1km south of the remains of the
Roman town Durobrivae, and 750m south west of the A1, the former Roman Ermine
Street. The mound survives as a substantial earthwork with a flat platform
top, standing approximately 3.5m high from the bottom of the ditch and
covering an area 20m in diameter. The mound's profile shows a marked break of
slope, suggesting that a 0.6m top layer was added for later reuse. A ramp
approximately 9m long runs from the adjacent field in the north up to 0.6m
from the top of the mound and may have been constructed at the same time as
the top layer. The barrow's encircling ditch, from which earth was dug in the
construction of the mound, is visible as a slight depression, up to 3.5m wide
and approximately 0.5m deep.
Legacy
The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.
Legacy System number:
33361
Legacy System:
RSM
End of official list entry
