Green Low chambered tomb

Reasons for Designation

Chambered tombs are funerary monuments constructed and used during the Early and Middle Neolithic periods (3400-2400 BC). They comprise linear mounds of stone covering one or more stone-lined burial chambers. With other types of long barrow they form the burial places of Britain's early farming communities and, as such, are amongst the oldest field monuments surviving visibly within the present landscape. Where investigated, chambered tombs appear to have been used for communal burial, often with only parts of the human remains having been selected for interment. The number of burials placed within the tombs suggests they were used over a considerable period of time and that they were important ritual sites for local communities. Some 300 chambered tombs are recorded in England. As one of the few types of Neolithic structure to survive as upstanding monuments, and due to their rarity, their considerable age and longevity as a monument type, all chambered tombs are considered to be nationally important.

Although Green Low chambered tomb has been disturbed by stone-robbing and excavation, the latter has been restricted to small areas and archaeological remains survive intact throughout much of the barrow. In addition, the facade is a rare architectural feature and the monument in general is of an unusual type common to the Peak District in which the burial chambers are covered by a round or sub-circular barrow instead of the more typical linear form.

Details

Green Low chambered tomb is located in the south-eastern uplands of the limestone plateau of Derbyshire. The monument includes a sub-circular mound measuring 22.5m by 19m and surviving to a height of c.0.75m. The profile of the barrow has been lowered by stone-robbing carried out in the eighteenth century. This activity exposed a single wedge-shaped chamber towards the southern end of the barrow constructed of limestone slabs and measuring 1.8m long by between 0.9m and 1.5m wide. This was approached from the south by a short paved passage which, together with the chamber, was excavated by Thomas Bateman in 1843 and found to contain disturbed human and animal remains and sherds of Neolithic pottery. A second partial excavation of the barrow was carried out in 1963 and 1964 under the direction of T G Manby. At this time the passage was found to lead from the centre of a walled facade set c.5m in from the southern edge of the barrow. The facade was 9.9m long and survived to a height of c.0.5m as four courses of horizontally laid limestone blocks. The ends terminated against projecting wings of barrow material, creating a forecourt measuring 8.25m from east to west by 2.4m from north to south. After burials had been placed in the passage and chamber, the tomb was closed by filling the forecourt with rubble. The rest of the barrow was built of horizontally laid limestone blocks covered over with earth. A disarticulated skeleton was found east of the chamber and further human bones were found to the north but scattered amongst the barrow material, indicating that they were incorporated during construction. Beaker sherds, pieces of grooved ware pottery and fragments of a polished greenstone axe indicate a Late Neolithic date for the barrow. However, a disturbed area against the west side of the chamber, from which Roman coins and pottery of the late third century AD were recovered, show that the barrow was re-used at a much later date. Excluded from the scheduling is the drystone wall crossing the southern edge of the monument but the ground underneath is included.

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:

13368

Legacy System:

RSM

Sources

Books and journals
Daniel, G E, Prehistoric Chamber Tombs of England and Wales, (1950)
Barnatt, J, The Peak District Barrow Survey (1989), (1989)
Barnatt, J, The Peak District Barrow Survey (1989), (1989)
Bateman, T, Vestiges of the Antiquities of Derbyshire, (1849)
Marsden, B M, The Burial Mounds of Derbyshire , (1977)
Manby, T G, Derbyshire Archaeological Journal in The Chambered Tombs of Derbyshire, Vol. 78, (1958)
Manby, T G, Derbyshire Archaeological Journal in The Excavation of Green Low Chambered Tomb, Vol. 85, (1965)

End of official list entry

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