Details

The monument includes a long barrow set on the crest of a hill in an area of
undulating chalk downland and with extensive views of the Wylye valley to the
north and east. The barrow mound is ovoid in shape and orientated east-west.
It is 50m long, 20m wide and stands 2m high when viewed from the north. The
central area of the barrow mound has been partially excavated in the past
although no details are known. Although no longer visible at ground level
flanking ditches, from which material was quarried during construction of the
monument, run parallel to the north and south sides of the mound. These have
become infilled over the years but survive as buried features c.3m wide.
The ditch north of the barrow mound lies beneath a metalled track, the surface
of which is excluded from the scheduling although the ground beneath is
included. The monument may be the `Maeden Beorge' described in a charter of
AD968.

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

Long barrows were constructed as earthen or drystone mounds with flanking
ditches and acted as funerary monuments during the Early and Middle Neolithic
periods (3400-2400 BC). They represent the burial places of Britain's early
farming communities and, as such, are amongst the oldest field monuments
surviving visibly in the present landscape. Where investigated, long barrows
appear to have been used for communal burial, often with only parts of the
human remains having been selected for interment. Certain sites provide
evidence for several phases of funerary monument preceding the barrow and,
consequently, it is probable that long barrows acted as important ritual sites
for local communities over a considerable period of time. Some 500 long
barrows are recorded in England. As one of the few types of Neolithic
structure to survive as earthworks, and due to their comparative rarity, their
considerable age and their longevity as a monument type, all long barrows are
considered to be nationally important.

The 180 long barrows of Hampshire, Wiltshire and Dorset form the densest and
one of the most significant concentrations of monuments of this type in the
country. The Boyton Field Barn barrow survives comparatively well and has
potential for the recovery of archaeological remains and environmental
evidence relating to the period in which the monument was constructed. The
importance of the site is enhanced by the fact that other long barrows survive
in the area giving an indication of the nature and intensity of occupation
during the Neolithic period.

Source: Historic England