Details

The monument includes a bowl barrow within Levington barrow cemetery, situated
on level ground 100m north north west of the junction between the parish
boundaries of Levington, to the west, Bucklesham to the north and east, and
Stratton Hall to the south. The barrow is visible as a low earthen mound
standing to a height of approximately 0.4m and covering a circular area
approximately 22m in diameter. The mound is surrounded by a ditch
approximately 3m wide from which earth was dug during construction of the
barrow. This ditch has become completely infilled, but it survives as a buried
feature, evidence of which has been recorded by means of aerial photography.

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 barrow 750m south west of Redhouse Farm is among the visible components of
a round barrow cemetery. Most such 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 different types
of round barrow and, wherever large scale investigation has been undertaken,
revealing contemporary or later `flat' burials between the barrow mounds.
Although the mound has been reduced by ploughing, the barrow retains important
archaeological information, both in itself and in relation to the cemetery as
a whole. Evidence concerning the construction of the barrow, the manner and
duration of its use, and also the local environment, at and prior to that
time, will be contained in the soils preserved beneath the mound and in the
fill of the buried ditch. The Levington Heath barrow cemetery is part of a
larger group of round barrows and circular ditched enclosures which extend in
a line to the north west over a distance of 3km, to Seven Hills, Nacton. The
parish boundary between Levington and Nacton, to the south, and Bucklesham and
Foxhall, to the north, follows the same line, showing a relationship which is
of particular interest for the study of the prehistoric and medieval landscape
history of the area.

Source: Historic England

Sources

Other
Phillips, A S, NAR TM24SW21E, (1962)
Suffolk SMR ACQ 30, 31,

Source: Historic England