Details

The monument includes a round barrow cemetery containing nine round barrows
which lie clustered in a broad crescent to the north of the eastern end of the
Cursus and ESE of the Durrington Down Barn Destructor.
The group is made up of eight bowl barrows and one pond barrow. The two bowl
barrows situated at the top of the crescent are confluent. The pond barrow,
which lies on the western edge of the curve, shows as a shallow depression
with a central soilmark. The bank which surrounded this is now difficult to
identify on the ground but is visible on aerial photographs as a 3m wide ring
of lighter soil defining an area c.25m across. Of the eight bowl barrows in
the group, seven are round, one (that immediately south of the pond barrow) is
oval. The barrow mounds range in size between 10m and 28m in diameter and from
being level to standing 1.3m high. All eight mounds are surrounded by ditches
from which material was quarried during their construction. These are now
difficult to identify on the ground having become infilled over the years, but
they do survive as buried features 2m-3m wide. All eight bowl barrows were
partially excavated in the 19th century. Six revealed primary cremations and
one contained several skeletons.
The post and wire fence that crosses the monument from north west to south
east is excluded from the scheduling but the ground beneath it is included.

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.
Round barrow cemeteries date to the Bronze Age (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 and occasionally associated with
earlier long barrows. Where investigation beyond the round barrows has
occurred, contemporary or later 'flat' burials between the barrow mounds have
often been revealed. Round barrow cemeteries occur across most of lowland
England with a marked concentration in Wessex. In some cases they are
clustered around other important contemporary monuments, as is the case both
here and at Avebury. Often occupying prominent positions, they are a major
historic element in the modern landscape, while their diversity and their
longevity as a monument type provide important information on the variety of
beliefs and social organisation amongst early prehistoric communities.

Six of the bowl barrows in the cemetery situated 400m north of the eastern end
of the Cursus survive well and two of these are confluent, a comparatively
rare arrangement. The group also includes a pond barrow, the rarest form of
round barrow, of which about 60 examples are recorded in a distribution
largely confined to Dorset and Wiltshire; many of these are within the
Stonehenge area. Despite the reduced height of two of the bowl barrows and
the bank which surrounded the pond barrow, partial excavation has shown that
all the barrows contain archaeological remains and environmental evidence
relating to the monument and the landscape in which it was constructed.

Source: Historic England

Sources

Books and journals
Grinsell, LV, The Victoria History of the County of Wiltshire: Volume V, (1957), 171
Grinsell, LV, The Victoria History of the County of Wiltshire: Volume V, (1957), 171
Grinsell, LV, The Victoria History of the County of Wiltshire: Volume V, (1957), 171
Grinsell, LV, The Victoria History of the County of Wiltshire: Volume V, (1957), 171
Grinsell, LV, The Victoria History of the County of Wiltshire: Volume V, (1957), 171
Grinsell, LV, The Victoria History of the County of Wiltshire: Volume V, (1957), 225
Grinsell, LV, The Victoria History of the County of Wiltshire: Volume V, (1957), 171
Grinsell, LV, The Victoria History of the County of Wiltshire: Volume V, (1957), 171
Grinsell, LV, The Victoria History of the County of Wiltshire: Volume V, (1957), 171
Hoare, R C, Ancient History of Wiltshire, (1812), 168
Hoare, R C, Ancient History of Wiltshire, (1812), 168
Hoare, R C, Ancient History of Wiltshire, (1812), 168
Hoare, R C, Ancient History of Wiltshire, (1812), 168
Hoare, R C, Ancient History of Wiltshire, (1812), 168
Hoare, R C, Ancient History of Wiltshire, (1812), 168
Hoare, R C, Ancient History of Wiltshire, (1812), 168
Hoare, R C, Ancient History of Wiltshire, (1812), 168
Hoare, R C, Ancient History of Wiltshire, (1812), 168

Source: Historic England