Details

The monument includes two bowl barrows aligned broadly east-west and situated
on the crest of Muston Down, a chalk ridge overlooking the Winterborne Valley
to the south. The barrows form two of the four known to occupy the north-
western part of Muston Down.
The barrows each have a mound composed of chalk rubble, with maximum
dimensions of between 10m-15m in diameter and between c.0.25-0.35m in height.
Each mound is surrounded by a ditch from which material was quarried during
the construction of the monument. The ditches have become infilled over the
years, but are known from aerial photographic evidence to survive as buried
features c.1.5m wide.

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 by ploughing, the two bowl barrows 320m south east of
East Down House survive as a combination of upstanding earthworks and buried
remains and will contain archaeological and environmental evidence relating to
the monument and the landscape in which they were constructed.

Source: Historic England

Sources

Books and journals
Historical Monuments in the County of Dorset: Volume I, (1970), 305
Historical Monuments in the County of Dorset: Volume I, (1970), 305
Grinsell, L V, 'Procs Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Soc.' in Dorset Barrows, (1959), 150
Other
Mention hole in mound in 1953,
Mention skeleton found in 1940-1,

Source: Historic England