Details

The monument includes a bowl barrow within Levington Heath barrow cemetery,
situated on level ground 140m south east of the parish boundary between
Levington and Bucklesham, which lies to the north. The barrow is visible as
a low earthen mound and marked also by a sandy patch in the ploughsoil. In
1959, when already under cultivation, the mound was recorded as measuring
approximately 1.2m in height and 27m in diameter. Since then it has been
reduced by ploughing and now stands to a height of approximately 0.4m and
covers a circular area approximately 24m in diameter.

MAP EXTRACT
The site of the monument is shown on the attached map extract.
It includes a 3 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 900m 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 barrow mound has been reduced by ploughing, the monument retains
important archaeological information, both in itself and in relation to the
cemetery as a whole. Evidence concerning the manner and duration of use of
the barrow, and also the local environment, at and prior to that time, will be
contained in the soils preserved beneath the mound. 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
AM7, (1959)
Suffolk SMR ACQ 30, 31,

Source: Historic England