Ancient Monuments

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Two bowl barrows 30m north of The Cursus

A Scheduled Monument in Durrington, Wiltshire

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Coordinates

Latitude: 51.1882 / 51°11'17"N

Longitude: -1.813 / 1°48'46"W

OS Eastings: 413166.596616

OS Northings: 143231.321465

OS Grid: SU131432

Mapcode National: GBR 4ZV.JFG

Mapcode Global: VHB5B.JDDH

Entry Name: Two bowl barrows 30m north of The Cursus

Scheduled Date: 17 March 1965

Last Amended: 27 March 1995

Source: Historic England

Source ID: 1009065

English Heritage Legacy ID: 10244

County: Wiltshire

Civil Parish: Durrington

Traditional County: Wiltshire

Lieutenancy Area (Ceremonial County): Wiltshire

Church of England Parish: Durrington All Saints

Church of England Diocese: Salisbury

Details

The monument includes two bowl barrows situated 30m north of the Cursus toward
its eastern end. The barrows survive as slight earthworks and are aligned
broadly north west-south east. The mound of the western barrow is 0.3m high
and 18m in diameter. The mound of the eastern barrow is 0.2m high and 15m in
diameter. Surrounding the barrow mounds are ditches from which material was
quarried during their construction. These have become infilled over the years
but survive as buried features, c.2m wide in the case of the western barrow
giving an overall diameter of 22m, and c.1.5m wide in the case of the eastern
barrow giving an overall diameter of 18m.
Due to factors of scale the map extract may seem to imply that this site,
SM10244 and the Cursus adjoin, but they are in fact separate on the ground.

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

A small number of areas in southern England appear to have acted as foci for
ceremonial and ritual activity during the Neolithic and Bronze Age periods.
Two of the best known and earliest recognised areas are around Avebury and
Stonehenge, now jointly designated as a World Heritage Site.
The area of chalk downland which surrounds Stonehenge contains one of the
densest and most varied groups of Neolithic and Bronze Age field monuments in
Britain. Included within the area are Stonehenge itself, the Stonehenge
cursus, the Durrington Walls henge, and a variety of burial monuments, many
grouped into cemeteries.
The area has been the subject of archaeological research since the 18th
century when Stukeley recorded many of the monuments and partially excavated a
number of the burial mounds. More recently, the collection of artefacts from
the surfaces of ploughed fields has supplemented the evidence for ritual and
burial by revealing the intensity of contemporary settlement and land-use.
In view of the importance of the area, all ceremonial and sepulchral monuments
of this period which retain significant archaeological remains are identified
as nationally important. 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, normally 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 variety of burial practices. There are over
10,000 surviving bowl barrows recorded nationally and at least 320 in the
Stonehenge area. This group of monuments will provide important information
on the development of this area during the Late Neolithic and Bronze Age
periods.

The two bowl barrows 30m north of the Cursus will contain archaeological
remains and environmental evidence relating to the monument and the landscape
in which it was constructed. These barrows are also of interest in that they
lie in such close proximity to the Cursus.

Source: Historic England

Sources

Books and journals
Grinsell, LV, The Victoria History of the County of Wiltshire: Volume V, (1957), 169
Hoare, R C, Ancient History of Wiltshire, (1812), 169
Other

Source: Historic England

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