Barrows (burial mounds), whilst not exactly littering the landscape, are still common features in the Wessex region. The earliest barrows hail from the beginning of the Neolithic (c. 4000 BC) and were of an elongated oval shape (longbarrows). The earliest roundbarrows date from the late Neolithic (c. 2400 BC onwards). By the Early Bronze Age (2000 BC) several distinctive Wessex forms of roundbarrows had evolved.

Wessex barrow forms (from top to bottom)
bowl barrow (x2)
bell barrow
disc barrow
saucer barrow
pond barrow

For the most barrows were arranged into cemetery groups. (pictured right is the barrow cemetery at Winterborne Stoke Crossroads, Wiltshire). In this group the development of the cemetery remains visible: the longbarrow was constructed in the Neolithic. Nearly 2000 years later further barrows were added. The barrows on the same alignment as the longbarrow are likely to be earlier than those off set to the right. Not visible on this picture are a number of barrows to the left of the cemetery which have been lost to ploughing.

The very earliest Bronze Age interments were inhumation burials, but within the first 100 to 200 years of the Bronze Age this practice had been almost completely given up in favour of cremation. Earlier interments tended to be accompanied by a larger variety of other artefacts, e.g. jewellery, weapons, etc. Cremations, especially in the Early Bronze Age tended to be place in urns, which mostly were upturned. The form and decoration of these urns generally was more complex during the Early Bronze Age. by the Middle Bronze Age barrow building had virtually stopped. Instead old barrows were reused. Where a typical Early barrow might only contain one or two interment, those which were re-used might have up to 100 cremations placed at their outer margins (cemetery barrows). The form and decoration of cinerary urns also become more simple in the Middle Bronze Age, whilst other artefacts (grave goods) were absent altogether. By the later Bronze Age (1000 - 700 BC) ceramics accompanying cremations also became a rarity.