Details

This monument includes two bowl barrows situated on East Kimber Common on a
prominent upland ridge with commanding views across to Dartmoor, Exmoor and
Bodmin Moor.
The western barrow is circular, has a diameter of 25.4m and is 0.6m high. The
second barrow, which lies 63.2m north east of the first is 21.6m in diameter
and 0.4m high and is most pronounced on its eastern side. The surrounding
quarry ditches of both barrows, from which material to construct the mounds
was derived, survive as buried features.
Another barrow lying to the south west is the subject of a separate
scheduling.

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 reduction in their height due to cultivation, the two bowl barrows on
East Kimber Common survive comparatively well on a prominent ridge top
location. Archaeological and environmental information relating to the
monument and the landscape in which it was constructed survives in and under
these mounds.

Source: Historic England

Sources

Other
Devon County Sites and Monuments Register, SX49NE5, (1983)
MPP fieldwork by H. Gerrard, Gerrard, H., (1997)

Source: Historic England