Tawna Downs round barrows
Heritage Category: Scheduled Monument
List Entry Number: 1004441
Date first listed: 01-Jan-1900
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This copy shows the entry on 22-Mar-2019 at 18:25:53.
The building or site itself may lie within the boundary of more than one authority.
District: Cornwall (Unitary Authority)
National Grid Reference: SX 13043 66935, SX 13088 66953
Two bowl barrows 580m ENE of Pinsla Park.
Reasons for Designation
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. 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. Despite reduction in the heights of the mounds through cultivation, the two bowl barrows 580m ENE of Pinsla Park survive well and although probably not part of the extensive cemetery to the south and east were clearly of major territorial significance to their builders. They will contain archaeological and environmental evidence relating to their construction, longevity, relative chronologies, social organisation, funerary and ritual practices and overall landscape context.
This record was the subject of a minor enhancement on 3 December 2015. This record has been generated from an "old county number" (OCN) scheduling record. These are monuments that were not reviewed under the Monuments Protection Programme and are some of our oldest designation records.
This monument, which falls into two areas, includes two bowl barrows situated on the summit of a prominent hill known as Tawna Downs which forms the watershed between the valleys of three tributaries to the River Fowey. Both barrows survive as circular mounds with buried surrounding quarry ditches, from which construction material for the mounds was derived. The western mound measures 16m in diameter and 0.8m high and the eastern mound is 17m in diameter and 1m high.
A large and extensive round barrow cemetery lies to the south and east on the opposite side of the River Fowey. The barrows which form this cemetery are the subject of separate schedulings.
The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.
Legacy System number: CO 451
Legacy System: RSM - OCN
PastScape Monument No:-432598
This monument is scheduled under the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Areas Act 1979 as amended as it appears to the Secretary of State to be of national importance. This entry is a copy, the original is held by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport.
End of official listing