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Three bowl barrows 40m north of The Cursus

A Scheduled Monument in Durrington, Wiltshire

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Coordinates

Latitude: 51.1884 / 51°11'18"N

Longitude: -1.8109 / 1°48'39"W

OS Eastings: 413314.060511

OS Northings: 143258.524152

OS Grid: SU133432

Mapcode National: GBR 4ZV.JYT

Mapcode Global: VHB5B.KDJB

Entry Name: Three bowl barrows 40m north of The Cursus

Scheduled Date: 24 March 1995

Source: Historic England

Source ID: 1009066

English Heritage Legacy ID: 10245

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 three bowl barrows aligned broadly east-west and
situated 40m north of the Cursus toward its eastern end. The mound of the
western barrow is 1.3m high and 18m in diameter. The central and eastern
barrows are now difficult to define on the ground. However, they are
represented on the County Series Ordnance Survey 6" map of 1887 from which the
mounds have been calculated to be 10m across in the case of the central barrow
and 12m across in the case of the eastern barrow. Surrounding all three barrow
mounds are ditches from which material was quarried during their construction.
These have become infilled over the years but survive as buried features of
c.2m wide, c.1m wide and c.1.5m wide respectively, giving the barrows overall
diameters of c.22m, c.12m and c.15m. All three barrows were partially
excavated in the 19th century and all three contained primary cremations.

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 three bowl barrows 40m north of the Cursus are known from partial
excavation to contain archaeological remains and environmental evidence
relating to the monument and the landscape in which it was constructed. They
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), 172
Grinsell, LV, The Victoria History of the County of Wiltshire: Volume V, (1957), 172
Grinsell, LV, The Victoria History of the County of Wiltshire: Volume V, (1957), 172
Hoare, R C, Ancient History of Wiltshire, (1812), 169
Hoare, R C, Ancient History of Wiltshire, (1812), 169
Hoare, R C, Ancient History of Wiltshire, (1812), 169

Source: Historic England

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