Details

The monument includes a long barrow set across a ridge-top on an area of
gently undulating chalk downland. The monument survives as a low earthwork,
rectangular in plan and orientated NNW-SSE. The barrow mound is c.40 long by
15m across and survives to a height of 0.4m. Flanking ditches, from which
material used to construct the mound was quarried, run parallel to the east
and west sides of the mound. These have been infilled over the years and now
survive as buried features c.5m across.
Large quantities of worked flint, including retouched artefacts and cores, are
visible both on the surface of the mound and in the immediate area around it.
These are believed to be contemporary with the construction and use of the
monument.

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

Long barrows were constructed as earthen or drystone mounds with flanking
ditches and acted as funerary monuments during the Early and Middle Neolithic
periods (3400-2400 BC). They represent the burial places of Britain's early
farming communities and, as such, are amongst the oldest field monuments
surviving visibly in the present landscape. Where investigated, long barrows
appear to have been used for communal burial, often with only parts of the
human remains having been selected for interment. Certain sites provide
evidence for several phases of funerary monument preceding the barrow and,
consequently, it is probable that long barrows acted as important ritual sites
for local communities over a considerable period of time. Some 500 long
barrows are recorded in England. As one of the few types of Neolithic
structure to survive as earthworks, and due to their comparative rarity, their
considerable age and their longevity as a monument type, all long barrows are
considered to be nationally important.

The 180 long barrows of Hampshire, Wiltshire and Dorset form the densest and
one of the most significant concentrations of monuments of this type in the
country. Despite some damage due to cultivation, the Horton Down barrow is
important as its survives comparatively well and, with no evidence of formal
excavation, has considerable archaeological potential.
It is one of several long barrows and other contemporary monument types
occurring in the immediate area giving an indication of the intensity with
which the area was settled during the Neolithic period.

Source: Historic England

Sources

Other
Schofield A J, 08 March 1990, (1990)

Source: Historic England