Details

The monument includes a bowl barrow within Levington Heath barrow cemetery,
situated on level ground 70m south of the parish boundary between Levington
and Bucklesham, which lies to the north. The barrow was visible as an earthen
mound which was recorded in 1959, when already under cultivation, as standing
to a height of 0.6m and covering a circular area 22m in diameter. Since then
it has been reduced by ploughing, but the area is clearly defined and marked
by a circular,light coloured, sandy patch measuring approximately 16m in
diameter in the ploughsoil.

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 1200m south west of Redhouse Farm is one of 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 levelled, excavations in
the same region of Suffolk have shown that such sites retain important
archaeological information, and this will have additional significance in
relation to the cemetery as a whole. Evidence concerning the manner and
period 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 barrow 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