Ancient Monuments

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Pair of bowl barrows on Amberley Mount, 760m north east of Downs Farm

A Scheduled Monument in Amberley, West Sussex

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Coordinates

Latitude: 50.9025 / 50°54'9"N

Longitude: -0.5188 / 0°31'7"W

OS Eastings: 504249.911561

OS Northings: 112492.691005

OS Grid: TQ042124

Mapcode National: GBR GK0.7NK

Mapcode Global: FRA 96SQ.CPR

Entry Name: Pair of bowl barrows on Amberley Mount, 760m north east of Downs Farm

Scheduled Date: 9 November 1961

Last Amended: 10 July 1997

Source: Historic England

Source ID: 1015719

English Heritage Legacy ID: 29255

County: West Sussex

Civil Parish: Amberley

Traditional County: Sussex

Lieutenancy Area (Ceremonial County): West Sussex

Church of England Parish: Amberley with North Stoke

Church of England Diocese: Chichester

Details

The monument includes a pair of east-west aligned bowl barrows situated on a
ridge which forms part of the Sussex Downs. The most prominent barrow of the
pair lies to the west and has a roughly circular mound c.14m in diameter and
c.1m high. The mound is surrounded by a ditch from which material used to
construct the barrow was excavated. This has becomed infilled over the years,
but survives as a buried feature c.2m wide. The eastern barrow has a mound
c.13m in diameter and c.0.8m high, the edge of which has been partly disturbed
by past ploughing. The mound will be surrounded by a buried construction ditch
c.2m wide.
The monument originally formed part of a group of at least eight burial
mounds, the other six of which have been levelled by modern ploughing and are
therefore not included in the scheduling.
The modern fence which crosses the monument is excluded from the scheduling,
although the ground beneath it is included.

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.

The pair of bowl barrows on Amberley Mount survive well, despite some
disturbance by modern ploughing, and will contain archaeological and
environmental remains relating to the construction and use of the monument.
The barrows form part of a dispersed group of broadly contemporary monuments
situated along the ridge, providing important evidence for the relationship
between burial practices, settlement and land division in this area of
downland during the later prehistoric period.

Source: Historic England

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