Fussell's long barrow

Summary

Long barrow called Fussells Lodge 470m south of Stockbottom Farm.

Reasons for Designation

Long barrows were constructed as earthen or drystone mounds with flanking ditches and acted as funerary monuments during the Early and Middle Neolithic periods (3400-2400 BC). They represent the burial places of Britain's early farming communities and, as such, are amongst the oldest field monuments surviving visibly in the present landscape. Where investigated, long barrows appear to have been used for communal burial, often with only parts of the human remains having been selected for interment. Certain sites provide evidence for several phases of funerary monument preceding the barrow and, consequently, it is probable that long barrows acted as important ritual sites for local communities over a considerable period of time. Some 500 examples of long barrows and long cairns, their counterparts in the uplands, are recorded nationally. As one of the few types of Neolithic structure to survive as earthworks, and due to their comparative rarity, their considerable age and their longevity as a monument type, all long barrows are considered to be important. The long barrow called Fussells Lodge 470m south of Stockbottom Farm is particularly important because this modern excavation provided so much information concerning social organisation, dating, burial rites and funerary practices and traditions, the development of the long barrow and its continued importance as a focal point for communities far beyond the time of its construction. It is extremely well known and has been much studied as a result.

History

See Details.

Details

This record was the subject of a minor enhancement on 15 September 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 includes a long barrow situated on the eastern side and close to the head of a wide dry valley called Stock Bottom. The long barrow survives as an elongated wedge shaped mound orientated from north east to south west and measuring approximately 64m long, up to 20m wide and from 0.5m up to 1m high with slight buried side ditches to the north west and south east of up to 18m wide. This well known long barrow was the subject of an extensive excavation by Ashbee in 1957. A palisaded mortuary house which contained at least three oval pits each with an inhumation and one backfilled with soil containing cremated bone were followed by a rectangular structure. At the eastern end of this were stacked the skulls and bones from 53 to 57 individuals. Also discovered were two Early Neolithic pots and an ox skull all beneath a cairn composed of flint nodules. The cairn also contained flint knapping debris, animal bone, antler and Late Neolithic pottery. The side ditches were found to contain fragments of Bronze Age collared and globular urns and Roman coarse ware and Samian pottery in the upper fills.

Legacy

The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.

Legacy System number:

WI 387

Legacy System:

RSM - OCN

Sources

Other
PastScape 218456
Wiltshire HER SE13SE100, SE13SE161 and SE13SE310

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