Details

The monument includes a bowl barrow set in a prominent location on the crest
of Inkpen Hill. The barrow mound is 10m in diameter and stands to a height of
0.5m. Although no longer visible at ground level, a ditch, from which mound
material was quarried, surrounds the barrow. This has become infilled over
the years and survives as a buried feature c.2m wide.
The monument is part of a dispersed barrow cemetery comprising six barrows,
all within 200m of each other, set on and below the crest of Inkpen Hill.

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. Their ubiquity and their tendency to occupy
prominent locations makes them 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 Inkpen Hill barrow is important because, with no evidence of formal
excavation, it has potential for the recovery of archaeological and
environmental evidence. The significance of the site is considerably
enhanced by its inclusion within a dispersed barrow cemetery. Such monuments
give an indication of the intensity with which areas were settled during
prehistory and provide evidence for the range of beliefs and nature of social
organisation during the Bronze Age.

Source: Historic England

Sources

Books and journals
Grinsell, L V, 'Berkshire Archaeological Journal' in Berkshire Archaeological Journal (Volume 43), , Vol. 43, (1939), 15
Other
SU 36 SW 1, NAR (Bowl barrow south of Rivar Copse),

Source: Historic England