Long barrow north of Lamborough Lane

Overview

Location

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 important concentrations of monuments of this type in the country. This example is regarded as important as, despite limited excavation, it survives particularly well.

Details

The monument includes a long barrow, surviving as an earthwork, set across a gentle south-facing slope 500m NE of the river Itchen. The barrow mound is orientated ENE-WSW and is rectangular in plan with maximum dimensions of 69m long by 36m wide at the centre where it stands to a height of 1.7m. Flanking quarry ditches run parallel to the north and south sides of the mound and survive to a width of between 5 and 7.5m. Both appear as shallow earthwork features and areas of darker earth. Partial excavation of the NE quadrant of the mound in 1944 revealed a flat bottomed ditch 6m wide and 2.4m deep. Finds from the excavation included a sherd of Neolithic pottery, flint flakes and animal bones.

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:

12111

Legacy System:

RSM

Sources

Books and journals
Godwin, G N, The Civil War in Hampshire, (1904)
Milner, A B, Some Earthworks in Mid-Hampshire, (1944)
Smith, I F , Long Barrows in Hampshire and the Isle of Wight, (1979)

Legal

This monument is scheduled under the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Areas Act 1979 as amended as it appears to the Secretary of State to be of national importance. This entry is a copy, the original is held by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport.