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Latitude: 51.1764 / 51°10'35"N
Longitude: -1.7997 / 1°47'58"W
OS Eastings: 414099.107597
OS Northings: 141929.107597
OS Grid: SU140419
Mapcode National: GBR 502.1V7
Mapcode Global: VHB5B.RPFJ
Entry Name: Bowl barrow 320m west of Vespasian's Camp
Scheduled Date: 9 April 1948
Last Amended: 4 May 1995
Source: Historic England
Source ID: 1012127
English Heritage Legacy ID: 10366
County: Wiltshire
Civil Parish: Amesbury
Traditional County: Wiltshire
Lieutenancy Area (Ceremonial County): Wiltshire
Church of England Parish: Amesbury St Mary and St Melor
Church of England Diocese: Salisbury
The monument includes a bowl barrow located 320m west of Vespasian's Camp,
just south of the A303 and situated on a gentle south east facing slope with
views south to Coneybury Hill and south east across the Avon valley. The
barrow has a mound 1.4m high and 16m in diameter. The mound is surrounded by a
ditch from which material was quarried during its construction. This has
become largely infilled over the years but survives as a slight earthwork
c.0.2m deep and c.3m wide, giving the barrow an overall diameter of c.22m.
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
A small number of areas in southern England appear to have acted as foci for
ceremonial and ritual activity during the Neolithic and Bronze Age periods.
Two of the best known and earliest recognised areas are around Avebury and
Stonehenge, now jointly designated as a World Heritage Site.
The area of chalk downland which surrounds Stonehenge contains one of the
densest and most varied groups of Neolithic and Bronze Age field monuments in
Britain. Included within the area are Stonehenge itself, the Stonehenge
cursus, the Durrington Walls henge, and a variety of burial monuments, many
grouped into cemeteries.
The area has been the subject of archaeological research since the 18th
century when Stukeley recorded many of the monuments and partially excavated a
number of the burial mounds. More recently, the collection of artefacts from
the surfaces of ploughed fields has supplemented the evidence for ritual and
burial by revealing the intensity of contemporary settlement and land-use.
In view of the importance of the area, all ceremonial and sepulchral monuments
of this period which retain significant archaeological remains are identified
as nationally important. 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, normally 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 variety of burial practices. There are over
10,000 surviving bowl barrows recorded nationally and at least 320 in the
Stonehenge area. This group of monuments will provide important information
on the development of this area during the Late Neolithic and Bronze Age
periods.
The bowl barrow 320m west of Vespasian's Camp survives well and will contain
archaeological remains and environmental evidence relating to the monument and
the landscape in which it was constructed.
Source: Historic England
Books and journals
Grinsell, L V, The Victoria History of the County of Wiltshire, (1957), 151
Hoare, R C, Ancient History of Wiltshire, (1812), OPP 170
Source: Historic England
Other nearby scheduled monuments