Details

The monument includes a bowl barrow situated on a chalk spur which projects
from a ridge of the Sussex Downs. The barrow has a circular mound, around 24m
in diameter and up to 0.5m high. 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 around 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 430m north east of Gumber Farm survives comparatively well and
will contain information relating to the construction and use of the monument.
The barrow is one of a group of broadly contemporary monuments situated along
this section of the Sussex Downs, providing evidence for the relationship
between settlement, land use and burial practices in this area of downland
during the later prehistoric period.

Source: Historic England