Lanhill Barrow: a long barrow 300m south of Sparrow 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 long barrows are recorded in England. 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 nationally important.

The 180 long barrows of Hampshire, Wiltshire and Dorset form the densest and one of the most significant concentrations of monuments of this type in the country. Despite partial excavation in the past, the Lanhill barrow survives well and has potential for the recovery of both archaeological remains and environmental evidence relating to the landscape in which the monument was constructed.

Details

The monument includes a long barrow set on level ground close to a tributary of the River Avon. It is rectangular in plan and orientated east-west. The barrow mound is 55m long, 25m wide and 1.5m high. A drystone entrance on the south side of the mound leads into a small chamber c.2m square while two further chambers are recorded on the north side of the mound. Although no longer visible at ground level flanking ditches, from which material was quarried during construction of the monument, run parallel to the north and south sides of the mound. These have become infilled over the years but survive as buried features c.3m wide. The site has been partially excavated, finds including the scattered bones of two adults in a chamber on the north side of the mound, nine skeletons in a chamber on the NW side and eleven skeletons in a further chamber.

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:

12319

Legacy System:

RSM

Sources

Books and journals
Wiltshire Archaeological Magazine in Wiltshire Archaeological Magazine: Volume 3, Vol. 3, (), 67-86

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