Details

The monument includes a bowl barrow and a barrow of uncertain form, aligned
south west-north east, situated 100m north east of the Itchen Abbas Roman
villa. The barrows lie close together immediately below the crest of a chalk
ridge on a slight south facing slope overlooking the valley of the River
Itchen. The north east barrow can be recognised as a mound, 40m in diameter
which, despite repeated ploughing, survives to a height of 0.5m. Although no
longer visible at ground level, a ditch, from which material was quarried
during construction of the monument, is known from previous records to
surround the mound. This has become infilled over time but will survive as a
buried feature 3m wide. The south west barrow can be recognised as a cropmark
feature of slightly ovoid form, with maximum dimensions of 26m (south west-
north east) and 20m (north west-south east).

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.

Despite some reduction in the height of the mound through ploughing, the bowl
barrow, the north east of the pair, survives well. The position of the barrow,
which is sited immediately below the crest of the ridge, in order to be seen
from the valley to the south, provides a visual indication of contemporary
settlement location. In addition, the surviving structure of this barrow,
which appears never to have been excavated, will contain evidence not only of
burial practices but also for the prehistoric environment and for the economy
of its builders. The cropmark barrow, which may not, on the basis of its ditch
shape and lack of a substantial earthwork mound, be a barrow of bowl form,
will contain similar deposits within buried features such as the ditch.

Source: Historic England