Details

The monument includes two bowl barrows aligned NE-SW and set on an east-facing
slope at a point where the chalk ridge, which runs across the centre of the
island, is bisected by a dry-valley system orientated north-south. The
southern barrow mound is 17m across and 1.5m high. A hollow 3m across and
0.5m deep on the centre of the mound suggests the site was once partially
excavated. A ditch, from which material was quarried during construction of
the monument, surrounds the mound. This has become partly infilled over the
years but is visible as a low earthwork 1m wide and 0.1m deep on the
south-west side of the mound and survives as a buried feature elsewhere. At a
distance of 11m north-east of the southern barrow is an additional mound 15m
across and 0.7m high. A ditch surrounding the mound survives as a buried
feature c.1m wide.

MAP EXTRACT
The site of the monument is shown on the attached map extract.

Source: Historic England

Reasons for Scheduling

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, sometimes 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 diversity of burial practices. There are over 10,000 surviving bowl
barrows recorded nationally (many more have already been destroyed), occurring
across most of lowland Britain. Often occupying prominent locations, they are
a major historic element in the modern landscape and their considerable
variation of form and longevity as a monument type provide important
information on the diversity of beliefs and social organisations amongst early
prehistoric communities. They are particularly representative of their period
and a substantial proportion of surviving examples are considered worthy of
protection.

Despite evidence for partial excavation of the southern barrow mound, the
Calbourne Bottom monument survives well and, as a pair of contemporary
barrows, has potential for the recovery of archaeological evidence and
environmental remains relating to the nature of Bronze Age communities on the
island and the landscape in which they lived.

Source: Historic England