Summary

Three bowl barrows 1100m north-east of Deptford Field Barn.

Source: Historic England

Details

This record was the subject of a minor enhancement on 1 July 2015. This record has been generated from an "old county number" (OCN) scheduling record. These are monuments that were not reviewed under the Monuments Protection Programme and are some of our oldest designation records. As such they do not yet have the full descriptions of their modernised counterparts available. Please contact us if you would like further information.

This monument, which falls into two areas, includes three bowl barrows situated on the southern tip of a prominent ridge at the head of a dry valley with distant views across the Wylye Valley. The barrows survive as circular mounds surrounded by buried quarry ditches from which the construction material was derived with one closely spaced pair to the south west and a single barrow to the north east. The barrow mounds range in size from 5m up to 10m in diameter and from 0.8m to 1m high. The north eastern one has a central excavation hollow.

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 superficially similar, although differing widely in size, they exhibit regional variations in form and a diversity of burial practices. 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 reduction in the heights of the mounds through past cultivation the three bowl barrows 1100m north east of Deptford Field Barn survive comparatively well and will contain archaeological and environmental evidence relating to their construction, relative chronologies, territorial significance, social organisation, ritual and funerary practices and overall landscape context.

Source: Historic England

Sources

Other
PastScape 214480
Wiltshire HER SU03NW608, SU03NW609 and SU03NW610

Source: Historic England