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I see your point, Raynor, but I am still inclined to believe that the Dúnedain were driven to the barrows, which were natural defensive positions because of their partially buried positions, their sturdy stone structures, and their relative inaccessibility. The passage you cite says that the “towers fell, [and the] fortresses were burned,” which is exactly what I think happened during the war of III 1409.
If they were like barrows in the British Islands, anyone entering the Dúnedain or Edain barrows would have to duck down to enter through a narrow passage that opened into a space that permitted anyone inside to stand on either side of the tunnel, allowing defenders considerable advantage.
Finally, we should consider whether the soldiers of Angmar and their commanders would immediately think to check the graves of the Dúnedain while they were trying to flush out and hunt down survivors: the folk of Angmar were, after all, likely worshipping either a Morgul-lord (the Witch-king) or his Master (Sauron), both notorious necromancers, so to them graves probably implied necromancy and thus places by all means to be avoided; while to the Dúnedain they were still “clean” places (before the arrival of the barrow-wights about III 1636, when the lands around the tombs were deserted because of the death toll exacted by the Great Plague).
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