Aldro earthworks: a bowl barrow on Hanging Grimston Wold 100m west of Stone Sleights Farm

Reasons for Designation

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. Often superficially similar, although differing widely in size, they exhibit regional variations in form and a diversity of burial practices. There are over 10,000 surviving bowl barrows recorded nationally (many more have already been destroyed), occurring across most of lowland Britain. Often occupying prominent locations, 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 and a substantial proportion of surviving examples are considered worthy of protection.

The barrow has not apparently been altered by agricultural activity and has not been excavated; its contents will remain intact. The monument is one of the best preserved of a closely associated group of barrows which have further associations with broadly contemporary boundary earthworks on Birdsall Wold. Similar groups of monuments are also known from other parts of the Wolds and from the southern edge of the North York Moors. Such associations between monuments offer important scope for the study of the division of land for social, ritual and agricultural purposes in different geographical areas during the prehistoric period.

Details

The monument includes a bowl barrow situated on a plateau at the north side of Hanging Grimston Wold, close to the head of Brownmoor Dale. It is one of a number of prehistoric monuments in the vicinity of Aldro Farm. The barrow comprises a 1.5m high mound, 37m in diameter, surrounded by an infilled ditch, from which the material used to construct the mound was excavated, and which is estimated to define the diameter of the barrow at 43m. The barrow was recorded by J R Mortimer in the 19th century but was not excavated; buried features, including burials and the infilled ditch, with an estimated width of 3m, will remain undisturbed.

MAP EXTRACT The site of the monument is shown on the attached map extract. It includes a 2 metre boundary around the archaeological features, considered to be essential for the monument's support and preservation.

Legacy

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

Legacy System number:

20504

Legacy System:

RSM

Sources

Books and journals
Mortimer, J R, Forty Years Researches in British and Saxon Burial Mounds of East Yorkshire, (1905)

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