Scheduled Monument: BOWL BARROW SITUATED IN THE NORTHERN PART OF IFFIN WOOD, 120M EAST OF NEW HOUSE LANE (1009010)
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Date assigned | 28 October 1994 |
Date last amended |
Description
The monument includes a bowl barrow situated on the northern side of a clay-capped, chalk hill forming part of the Kent Downs, overlooking the river Great Stour to the north west. The barrow has a sub-circular mound 14.3m in diameter and surviving to a height of 1.3m, which has been partially disturbed on the north eastern side by a woodland track. 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. The barrow was partially excavated in 1842 when five, inverted Bronze Age pottery vessels, each covering a cremation burial, were discovered inside.
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 disturbance by the adjacent, modern woodland track and tree-root action, the bowl barrow in the northern part of Iffin Wood survives comparatively well and is known from partial excavation to contain archaeological remains and environmental evidence relating to the monument and the landscape in which it was constructed.
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Location
Grid reference | Centred TR 1333 5407 (22m by 23m) |
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Map sheet | TR15SW |
County | KENT |
District | CANTERBURY, KENT |
Civil Parish | CHARTHAM, CANTERBURY, KENT |
Related Monuments/Buildings (1)
Record last edited
Aug 5 2011 2:06PM