Details

The monument includes two adjacent bowl barrows orientated SE-NW and set on a
gentle east-facing slope above the head of the Kennet valley. The southern
barrow mound is 32m in diameter and stands to a height of 2m while the
northern mound is 38m across and 2.5m high. Both mounds were partially
excavated by Merewether in 1849. Finds from the southern mound included a
primary cremation burial as well as later Saxon inhumations, one with a knife,
three earthenware beads and a metal box with chain. The northern mound
included a cremation burial in a tree-trunk coffin containing a bronze dagger
with three rivets.
Although no longer visible at ground level, a ditch from which material was
quarried during construction of the monument, surrounds both mounds. This has
become infilled over the years but survives as a buried feature c.3m wide.

MAP EXTRACT
The site of the monument is shown on the attached map extract.

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 cultivation and the partial excavation of both barrow mounds in 1849,
the monument south-east of Little London survives comparatively well and has
potential for the recovery of archaeological evidence and environmental
remains relating to the period in which the monument was constructed.

Source: Historic England

Sources

Books and journals
Merewether, J, 'Archaeological Institute' in Memoirs of the Archaeological Institute, (1849), 96-7

Source: Historic England