Long barrow 650m south-east of Cross Thorns Barn

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.

Although the barrow has been partially altered by agricultural activity, it is still visible as a slight earthwork and was also comparatively well-documented during a campaign of fieldwork in the 19th century. Further evidence of the structure of the mound, the flanking ditches and burials placed beneath the mound, either on the old landsurface or in deep grave pits, will survive. The monument is one of two closely associated long barrows which have wider associations with the numerous broadly contemporary funerary monuments and boundary earthworks on the Wolds. 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 Neolithic long barrow situated on ground which falls gently to the north-east, towards Rabbit Garth Slack. A second long barrow, later re-used as the site of a Bronze Age bowl barrow, lies 1km to the north of this monument. Although altered by agricultural activity and partially excavated in the 19th century, the barrow is still visible as a 0.3m high oblong mound, measuring 50m east-west by 20m north-south. The quarry ditches which flanked the barrow have been infilled by gradual spreading of the mound material but, although they are no longer visible as earthworks, the ditches survive below ground and have been observed on aerial photographs. Including the ditches, the barrow measures 50m by 30m overall. The long barrow was first excavated by Canon Greenwell in 1866 and by J R Mortimer in 1868; the flanking ditches and facade structures at the western end of the mound were identified, while beneath the mound a series of deep pits with remains of both human and animal burials were recorded. It has been suggested that, in common with the long barrow to the north of Cross Thorns Barn, a bowl barrow may have been added to the original long barrow but the evidence for this is not conclusive.

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:

20557

Legacy System:

RSM

Sources

Books and journals
Kinnes, I A, Longworth, I H, The Greenwell Collection, (1985), 144

Other
Stoertz, C, (1992)

End of official list entry

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