Details

The monument includes a bowl barrow on Summerslade Down, a ridge of Upper
Chalk which forms the eastern side of the Wylye valley above Monkton Deverill.
The mound of the barrow is 16m in diameter and 0.4m high. It is surrounded by
a ditch 3m wide from which material was quarried during its construction. This
has become infilled over the years but survives as a buried feature 3m 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 in height by ploughing, the bowl barrow 1110m south
east of St Michael's Church on Summerslade Down survives comparatively well.
There is no record that it has been opened and it will therefore contain
archaeological and environmental remains providing evidence about the people
who built the barrow and the landscape in which they lived.

Source: Historic England