Details

The monument includes a linear round barrow cemetery aligned NE-SW lying on
lowland heath close to the Dorset coast.
The cemetery includes five bowl barrows with mounds ranging in height between
1m and 1.5m and in diameter from 9m to 10m. The barrows are evenly spaced,
varying between 3m and 6m apart.
Each of the mounds was surrounded by a ditch from which material was quarried
during their construction. These can no longer be seen at ground level, but
survive as buried features c.2m 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.

Source: Historic England

Reasons for Scheduling

Round barrow cemeteries date to the Bronze Age (c.2000-700 BC). They comprise
closely-spaced groups of up to 30 round barrows - rubble or earthen mounds
covering single or multiple burials. Most cemeteries developed over a
considerable period of time, often many centuries, and in some cases acted as
a focus for burials as late as the early medieval period. They exhibit
considerable diversity of burial rite, plan and form, frequently including
several different types of round barrow, occasionally associated with earlier
long barrows. Where large scale investigation has been undertaken around them,
contemporary or later "flat" burials between the barrow mounds have often been
revealed. Round barrow cemeteries occur across most of lowland Britain, with a
marked concentration in Wessex. In some cases, they are clustered around other
important contemporary monuments such as henges. Often occupying prominent
locations, they are a major historic element in the modern landscape, whilst
their diversity and their longevity as a monument type provide important
information on the variety of beliefs and social organisation amongst early
prehistoric communities. They are particularly representative of their period
and a substantial proportion of surviving or partly-surviving examples are
considered worthy of protection.

The barrow cemetery on Povington Heath has survived well and contains
archaeological remains and environmental evidence relating to the monument and
the landscape in which it was constructed. These barrows are amongst a
number which survive on this piece of heathland between the River Frome and
the Dorset coast.

Source: Historic England

Sources

Books and journals
Royal Commission on Historical Monuments, , County of Dorset , (1970), 454

Source: Historic England