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Bowl barrow 850m south of Bristol Plain Farm: part of a linear round barrow cemetery

A Scheduled Monument in Rodney Stoke, Somerset

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Coordinates

Latitude: 51.2573 / 51°15'26"N

Longitude: -2.7115 / 2°42'41"W

OS Eastings: 350448.180665

OS Northings: 151141.585846

OS Grid: ST504511

Mapcode National: GBR MK.14VM

Mapcode Global: VH89J.YNFJ

Entry Name: Bowl barrow 850m south of Bristol Plain Farm: part of a linear round barrow cemetery

Scheduled Date: 19 December 1929

Last Amended: 19 September 1994

Source: Historic England

Source ID: 1008085

English Heritage Legacy ID: 13909

County: Somerset

Civil Parish: Rodney Stoke

Traditional County: Somerset

Lieutenancy Area (Ceremonial County): Somerset

Details

The monument includes a bowl barrow located on level ground 850m south of
Bristol Plain Farm. It is visible as a barrow mound 10m in diameter and c.1m
high at its highest point.
Although no longer visible at ground level a ditch, from which material was
quarried during the construction of the monument, surrounds the mound. This
has become infilled over the years but survives 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.

The bowl barrow 850m south of Bristol Plain Farm survives well and contains
archaeological and environmental evidence relating both to the monument and
the landscape in which it was constructed.
As well as being associated with the other bowl barrows in the round barrow
cemetery, numerous other burial monuments of the same date also survive in the
area. Such evidence gives an indication of the intensity of occupation and
the nature of social organisation present in the area during the Bronze Age
period.

Source: Historic England

Sources

Books and journals
Grinsell, L, 'Proceedings of the Somerset Archaeology and Natural Hist Soc' in Somerset Barrows Part II, , Vol. Vol 115, (1971), p. 121
Tratman, E K, 'University of Bristol Speleological Society' in Barrow Catalogue, ()
Tratman, E K, 'Proceedings of the Univ of Bristol Speleological Society' in Fieldwork, , Vol. Vol 2(3), (1925), p. 284

Source: Historic England

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