Details

The monument includes a bowl barrow situated on a ridge of chalk downland south of Norton Top, overlooking Blackstone Bottom on the South Downs. The barrow survives as a roughly circular-shaped 14m diameter mound standing 1m high surrounded by a quarry ditch.
The monument excludes all modern fences and fences posts; gates and gate posts; the surface of the modern footpath and the boundary stone on top of the mound. However the ground beneath all these features is included.

Sources: East Sussex HER MES2700. NMR TQ40SE52. PastScape 406218.
1875, 1899, 1910 and 1928 Sussex OS Maps (1:2500).

Source: Historic England

Reasons for Scheduling

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 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.
Despite some disturbance by animal activity, the bowl barrow 870m NNE of Blackstone Barn survives well and will contain archaeological and environmental information relating to the mound and the landscape in which it was constructed.

Source: Historic England