In the Bronze Age, circular mounds were built to bury the leaders of the community. The barrows were often grouped in cemeteries strung out in a line along a ridge as at Normanton Down Barrows and King Barrows. Often, they were aligned on an earlier long barrow, showing continuity of use over thousands of years.

In the early Bronze Age, the dead were buried in a crouched position in a grave cut into the chalk. Later cremation became universal, the ashes being deposited in a small pit or in a pottery urn before the barrow was heaped up over them.