Details

The monument includes a bowl barrow situated on a chalk ridge which forms part
of the Sussex Downs. The barrow has a roughly circular mound approximately 14m
in diameter and up to 1m high with a large central hollow, indicating
antiquarian excavation during the 18th or 19th centuries. The mound is
surrounded by a ditch from which material used to construct the barrow was
excavated. This has become infilled over the years, but survives as a buried
feature up to 2m 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.

The bowl barrow on Springhead Hill survives comparatively well, despite some
disturbance by an unrecorded antiquarian excavation, and will contain
archaeological remains and environmental evidence relating to the construction
and use of the monument. The barrow forms one of a dispersed group of broadly
contemporary monuments situatated 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