Details

The monument includes a bowl barrow which is one of a dispersed group of round
barrows, sited on a broad ridge at the western edge of the Good Sands upland
region of north west Norfolk. The barrow stands on a slight, south facing
slope and is visible as an earthen mound c.1.5m in height and covering a
circular area c.21m in diameter. The mound is thought to be surrounded by a
ditch from which earth was dug during the construction of the barrow. This
has become infilled and is no longer visible, but will survive as a buried
feature.

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

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.

The bowl barrow on Bunker's Hill is part of one of the principal barrow groups
surviving in north west Norfolk, and retains archaeological information which
has additional interest in this context. It survives well, and evidence for
the construction of the barrow, for the manner and duration of its use, and
for the local environment at that time will be contained in the mound, in the
soil buried beneath the mound and in the fill of the buried ditch. The barrow
group as a whole is of wider importance for the study of the character and
development of the prehistoric population of the area.

Source: Historic England

Sources

Books and journals
Lawson, A, 'East Anglian Archaeology' in East Anglian Archaeology, , Vol. 2, (1976), 49-62
Other
MS notebook in Guernsey Museum, Lukis, FC, (1843)

Source: Historic England