Reasons for Designation
Entrance graves are funerary and ritual monuments dating to the later Neolithic, Early and Middle Bronze Age (c.2500-1000 BC). They were constructed with a roughly circular mound of heaped rubble and earth, up to 25m in diameter, the perimeter of which may be defined by a kerb of edge-set slabs or, occasionally, coursed stone. The mound contains a rectangular chamber built of edge-set slabs or coursed rubble walling, or a combination of both. The chamber was roofed by further slabs, called capstones, spanning the walls. The chamber was accessible via a gap in the mound's kerb or outer edge and often extends back beyond the centre of the mound. Excavations within entrance graves have revealed cremated human bone and funerary urns, usually within the chambers but on occasion within the mound. Unburnt human bone has been recovered but is only rarely preserved. Some chambers have also produced ritual deposits of domestic midden debris, including dark earth typical of the surface soil found in settlements, animal bone and artefact fragments. Entrance graves may occur as single monuments or in small or large groups often associated with other cairn types in cemeteries.
Entrance graves are one of several forms of chambered tombs found in western Britain and adjacent areas to the south, including the Channel Islands and Brittany. In England, entrance graves are confined to the extreme south west, with 79 of the 93 recorded surviving examples located on the Isles of Scilly and the remaining 14 located in Penwith peninsula at the western tip of
Cornwall.
Bowl barrows, the most numerous form of round barrow, are funerary monuments dating from the Late Neolithic period to the Late Bronze Age, with most examples belonging to the period 2400-1500 BC. They were constructed as earthen or rubble mounds, sometimes ditched, which covered single or multiple burials. They occur either in isolation or grouped as cemeteries and often acted as a focus for burials in later periods. Differing widely in size, they exhibit regional variations in form and a diversity of burial practices, they are a major historic element in the modern landscape and their considerable variation of form and longevity as a monument type provide important information on the diversity of beliefs and social organisations amongst early prehistoric communities. They are particularly representative of their period.
Despite early partial excavation or robbing , the two entrance graves and two bowl barrows 670m SSE of Treen Farm survive comparatively well and will contain archaeological and environmental evidence relating to their construction, use, funerary and ritual practices, social organisation, territorial significance and overall landscape context.
Details
The monument, which falls into three areas of protection, includes two entrance graves and two bowl barrows, situated on the upper western slopes of a small unnamed river valley and to the south east of the settlement of Treen. The northern entrance grave survives as a circular stony mound which measures up to 7.6m in diameter and 1.1m high. It contains a roughly-rectangular chamber measuring approximately 1m long, 0.6m wide and 0.7m high and roofed by a single capstone. The southern entrance grave survives as a circular stony mound measuring approximately 7.6m in diameter and up to 1.3m high with traces of an outer retaining wall. It has a rectangular inner chamber defined by drystone walls and roofed with three capstones. The entrance to the chamber is narrowed by two large stones.
The two bowl barrows survive as circular mounds of earth and stone measuring up to 7m in diameter and 1.3m high. The surrounding quarry ditches, from which material to construct the mounds was derived, are preserved as buried features up to 2m wide. One of the barrows lies between the two entrance graves and the other to the far south. Both barrows have been subject to partial early excavation or robbing. Russell noted that a Late Bronze Age urn with two small handles, now in Penzance museum, came from one of these features.
Further archaeological remains survive to the north and are the subject of a separate scheduling.
Sources: HER:-
PastScape Monument No:-423601
