Ancient Monuments

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Bowl barrow 25m north of The Cursus

A Scheduled Monument in Durrington, Wiltshire

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Coordinates

Latitude: 51.1884 / 51°11'18"N

Longitude: -1.8068 / 1°48'24"W

OS Eastings: 413597.586

OS Northings: 143260.70993

OS Grid: SU135432

Mapcode National: GBR 4ZW.D19

Mapcode Global: VHB5B.MDP9

Entry Name: Bowl barrow 25m north of The Cursus

Scheduled Date: 23 March 1995

Source: Historic England

Source ID: 1009073

English Heritage Legacy ID: 10404

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 a bowl barrow situated 25m north of the Cursus at its
eastern end. The barrow is now difficult to define on the ground being in an
area formerly disturbed by the construction of military buildings and more
recently by cultivation. A 19th century fieldworker has mapped the barrow and
from this the diameter of the mound has been calculated to be c.25m.
Surrounding the mound is a ditch from which material was quarried during its
construction. This has become infilled over the years but survives as a buried
feature c.2.5m wide, giving an overall diameter of c.30m. Partial excavation
in the 19th century produced a primary cremation.
The post and wire fences which cross the monument from east to west and from
north to south are excluded from the scheduling but the ground beneath them is
included.
Due to factors of scale the map extract may seem to imply that this
barrow, SM10404, 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 bowl barrow 25m north of the Cursus is known from partial excavation to
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), 172
Hoare, R C, Ancient History of Wiltshire, (1812), 170
Other

Source: Historic England

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