Julliberrie's Grave Long Barrow

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.

This example, although damaged by quarrying at the more northerly end, survives as an impressive earthwork mound and retains high archaeological potential. It also forms part of a small group of such monument associated with the Stour valley.

Details

The Long Barrow is situated on a false crest of the North Downs overlooking the Great Stour, 1km east of the village of Chilham. It is oriented SSE-NNW with its broader end towards the NNW. The original terminal of the monument at this end has been quarried away but it is estimated that some three- quarters of the original length remains. The most distinctive feature of the monument is the elongated earthen mound, measuring today some 45m in length and 8-10m in width. It stands to a height of ca.1.8m above the level of the surrounding land at the more northerly end, diminishing to less then 1m at the opposite end. In addition to the mound, however, there are two flanking ditches, similar in length to the mound itself, which are now completely infilled and undetectable but which were traced by excavation in the 1930s. It was these flanking ditches from which the earth and chalk used to construct the mound was quarried. A berm of 1.5m separated the mound from the flanking ditches. The excavations carried out in 1936 established that the surviving barrow mound formerly extended further northwards, perhaps forming a mound 60m in overall length. Quarry ditches were located at the lip of the quarry on both sides of the mound and cuttings were made across the ditches in four other places. The main burial chamber, it was concluded, had probably been lost to the quarrying, but evidence in the form of artefacts and other sources such as pollen is considered to survive within the remaining mound. The surface of the footpath running across the monument at the quarry edge is excluded from the scheduling, although the ground beneath it is included.

MAP EXTRACT The site of the monument is shown on the attached map extract.

Legacy

The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.

Legacy System number:

12766

Legacy System:

RSM

Sources

Books and journals
Jessup, R, Excavations at Julliberrie's Grave, Chilham, Kent, (1937)

Other
Darvill, T., MPP Single Monument Class Descriptions - Long Barrows, (1989)

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