Details

This monument includes two bowl barrows forming part of Bratley Plain round
barrow cemetery situated on lowland heath overlooking Backley Bottom. Both
barrow mounds measure 7m long, 5m wide and 0.3m high. Their shape suggests
limited damage in the past. Surrounding each mound is a ditch from which
material was quarried during the construction of the barrow. These have
become partly infilled but survive as slight earthworks c.1.5m wide along the
length of each mound and as buried features elsewhere.

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

Round barrow cemeteries date to the Bronze Age (c.2000-700 BC). They comprise
closely-spaced groups of up to 30 round barrows - rubble or earthen mounds
covering single or multiple burials. Most 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
several different types of round barrow, occasionally associated with earlier
long barrows. Where large scale investigation has been undertaken around them,
contemporary or later "flat" burials between the barrow mounds have often been
revealed. Round barrow cemeteries occur across most of lowland Britain, with a
marked concentration in Wessex. In some cases, they are clustered around other
important contemporary monuments such as henges. Often occupying prominent
locations, they are a major historic element in the modern landscape, whilst
their diversity and their longevity as a monument type provide important
information on the variety of beliefs and social organisation amongst early
prehistoric communities. They are particularly representative of their period
and a substantial proportion of surviving or partly-surviving examples are
considered worthy of protection.

The Bratley Plain round barrow cemetery contains a significantly large number
of small undisturbed barrows. The survival of so many small barrows within a
cemetery is a particularly uncommon phenomenon in southern England. Although
some of the larger mounds have been partially disturbed, possibly as a result
of tree planting, all the barrows retain undisturbed remains and the cemetery
as a whole has considerable archaeological potential. The New Forest region
is known to have been important in terms of lowland Bronze Age occupation and
a considerable amount of archaeological evidence has survived because of a
lack of agricultural activity, the result of later climatic deterioration,
development of heath and the establishment of a Royal Forest.

Source: Historic England