Details

This monument includes two bowl barrows situated on lowland heath and forming
part of the Black Bush Plain round barrow cemetery. The northern barrow mound
measures 9m in diameter and stands up to 0.4m high. A shallow hollow in the
centre of the mound suggests previous robbing or partial excavation. The
southern barrow mound measures 5m in diameter and stands up to 0.3m high.
Although no longer visible at ground level, ditches, from which material was
quarried during the construction of the barrows, surround each mound. These
have become infilled over the years but survive as buried features c.1.5m
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 Black Bush Plain round barrow cemetery contains a significantly large
number of small undisturbed barrows and lies within the New Forest. The
survival of so many small barrows within a cemetery is a particularly uncommon
phenomenon in southern England. Although some of the larger mounds have been
partially disturbed, all the barrows retain undisturbed remains and the
cemetery as a whole has considerable archaeological potential. The New Forest
region is known to have been important in terms of lowland Bronze Age
occupation and a considerable amount of archaeological evidence has survived
because of a lack of agricultural activity, the result of later climatic
deterioration, development of heath and the establishment of a Royal Forest.

Source: Historic England