Details

The monument includes a bowl barrow situated on a saddle of chalk downland on
the south eastern slope of Saxon Down. The barrow has a roughly circular mound
12.5m in diameter, which survives to a height of up to c.1.25m. A slight
hollow in the centre of the mound indicates that the barrow has been partially
excavated some time in the past. Surrounding the mound is 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 c.2m wide. Upcast earth
excavated during modern improvements to a track which runs alongside the
northern side of the monument partially overlies the eastern part of the
barrow mound and ditch. The upcast earth, which now supports grass cover, has
distorted the profile of the barrow, but the mound and ditch will survive as
buried features beneath the modern spoil.

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 distortion of its profile by modern spoil, the bowl barrow 240m
north west of Glyndebourne Pit survives comparatively well and will contain
archaeological remains and environmental evidence relating to the monument and
the landscape in which it was constructed. The monument is one of a number of
associated prehistoric and Anglo Saxon burial mounds situated on Saxon Down,
illustrating the importance of this area for funerary practices over a period
of around 3,000 years.

Source: Historic England

Sources

Books and journals
Grinsell, L V, 'Sussex Archaeological Collections' in Sussex Barrows, , Vol. 75, (1934), 263

Source: Historic England