Snelslow Plantation bowl barrow

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.

Only the centre of Snelslow Plantation bowl barrow has been disturbed by excavation and further significant archaeological remains will survive in the unexcavated areas of the monument and on the old land surface underneath.

Details

Snelslow Plantation is in the north-west uplands of the limestone plateau of Derbyshire. The monument is a bowl barrow including a sub-circular mound measuring 16m by 12m and standing c.1.75m high. A partial excavation of the barrow was carried out by Marsden in 1971 when it was found that the large earthen barrow concealed a smaller central limestone cairn with a height of 0.6m and a diameter of 5m. This cairn covered a layer of clay beneath which were the remains of a crouched inhumation in addition to a second disturbed inhumation and some burnt human bone indicative of a cremation burial. Numerous flint artefacts were also found within the cairn whilst above it, inserted into the earth mound, was found the extended skeleton of a child. The latter was a secondary burial and indicates the later re-use of the barrow. The primary remains date the monument to the Bronze Age.

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:

23258

Legacy System:

RSM

Sources

Books and journals
Barnatt, J, The Peak District Barrow Survey (1989), (1989)
Barnatt, J, The Peak District Barrow Survey (1989), (1989)
Marsden, B M, The Burial Mounds of Derbyshire , (1977), 85
Marsden, B, Derbyshire Archaeological Journal in The Excavation of Snel's Low and Lean Low Round Cairns, Derbys., Vol. 96, (1976), 5

End of official list entry

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