Details

The monument includes a bowl barrow situated on a chalk ridge which forms part
of the Sussex Downs. The barrow is one of a group of 13 constructed along this
part of the ridge, forming a dispersed, linear round barrow cemetery. The
barrow has a circular mound c.13m in diameter and up to 1.2m high with a
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 will survive as a buried feature c.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

Round barrow cemeteries date to the Bronze Age (c.2000-700 BC). They comprise
closely-spaced groups of up to 30 round barrows - rubble or earthen mounds
covering single or multiple burials. Most cemeteries developed over a
considerable period of time, often many centuries, and in some cases acted as
a focus for burials as late as the early medieval period. They exhibit
considerable diversity of burial rite, plan and form, frequently including
several different types of round barrow, occasionally associated with earlier
long barrows. Where large scale investigation has been undertaken around them,
contemporary or later "flat" burials between the barrow mounds have often been
revealed. Round barrow cemeteries occur across most of lowland Britain, with a
marked concentration in Wessex. In some cases, they are clustered around other
important contemporary monuments such as henges. Often occupying prominent
locations, they are a major historic element in the modern landscape, whilst
their diversity and their longevity as a monument type provide important
information on the variety of beliefs and social organisation amongst early
prehistoric communities. They are particularly representative of their period
and a substantial proportion of surviving or partly-surviving examples are
considered worthy of protection.

Bowl barrows are the most numerous form of round barrow and comprise
hemispherical, sometimes ditched earthen or rubble mounds covering single or
multiple burials. Most examples were constructed during the Earlyu Bronze Age,
between 2400-1500BC. There are over 10,000 surviving bowl barrows recorded
nationally (many more have been destroyed), occurring across most of lowland
Britain.
The bowl barrow at Kithurst Hill car park survives well, despite some
disturbance by an unrecorded antiquarian excavation, and will contain
archaeological and environmental evidence relating to the cemetery and the
landscape in which it was constructed. The barrow is one of a 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