A bowl barrow, sometimes referred to as a cairn circle, cairn ring, howe, kerb cairn, turnp or rotunda grave is a type of tumulus first identified by John Thurman.
In the United Kingdom a bowl barrow is an approximately hemispherical mound covering one or more inhumations or cremations. Where the mound is composed entirely of stone, rather than earth, the term cairn replaces the word barrow. The mound may be simply a mass of earth or stone, or it may be structured by concentric rings of posts, low stone walls, or upright stone slabs. In addition, the mound may have a kerb of stones or wooden posts. English Heritage proposed the following classification of British bowl barrows:
Type 1: Kerbless and ditchless barrows
Type 2: Kerbless with continuous ditch
Type 3: Kerbless with penannular ditch
Type 4: Kerbless with segmented ditch
Type 5: Kerbed but ditchless
Type 6: Kerbed with continuous ditch
Type 7: Kerbed with pennanular ditch
Type 8: Kerbed with segmented ditch
Type 9: Structured but ditchless
Type 10: Structured with continuous ditch
Type 11: Structured with penannular ditch
Type 12: Structured with segmented ditch
Bowl barrows were created from the Neolithic through to the Bronze Age in Britain.
External link
Bowl Barrow monument class description (http://www.eng-h.gov.uk/mpp/mcd/bb.htm)
The barrow's true nature was however revealed during excavation in 1940 by the late Dr. Hubert N. Savory, who was then working as an assistant in the Department of Archaeology at the National Museum of Wales.
The barrow mound was typically circular, averaging 31.7m in diameter.
The barrow would therefore be roughly contemporary with the later phases of construction at Stonehenge in Wiltshire, which lies at the heart of Wessex.
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