Details

The monument includes a bowl barrow situated on a prominent Greensand ridge
with extensive views along the coastline.
The barrow has a mound which measures 22m north-south and 35m east-west, and
stands up to c.3m high. Surrounding the mound is a ditch from which material
was quarried during its construction. This has become infilled over the years
and can no longer be seen on the ground, but survives as a buried feature c.5m
wide.
There is a central depression indicative of unrecorded antiquarian excavation.

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.

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. 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.

Despite evidence for antiquarian excavation, the bowl barrow on Mottistone
Common survives well and will contain archaeological remains and
environmental evidence relating to the barrow and the landscape in which it
was constructed. The barrow lies only 200m away from the Longstone long
barrow, one of only three long barrows on the Island. This is an unusually
large barrow and one of very few situated on Greensand on the Isle of Wight.

Source: Historic England