Western bowl barrow of a pair east of Craike Hill, 1km NNW of Eastburn Warren Farm

Reasons for Designation

Bowl barrows, the most numerous form of round barrow, are funerary monuments dating from the Late Neolithic period to the Late Bronze Age, with most examples belonging to the period 2400-1500 BC. They were constructed as earthen or rubble mounds, sometimes ditched, which covered single or multiple burials. They occur either in isolation or grouped as cemeteries and often acted as a focus for burials in later periods. Often superficially similar, although differing widely in size, they exhibit regional variations in form and a diversity of burial practices. There are over 10,000 surviving bowl barrows recorded nationally (many more have already been destroyed), occurring across most of lowland Britain. Often occupying prominent locations, they are a major historic element in the modern landscape and their considerable variation of form and longevity as a monument type provide important information on the diversity of beliefs and social organisations amongst early prehistoric communities. They are particularly representative of their period and a substantial proportion of surviving examples are considered worthy of protection.

The monument is one of a pair of bowl barrows here, which represent two of the few survivors of the many barrows which formerly existed in this area. Despite part excavation of this monument by J R Mortimer in 1866, the barrow still survives reasonably well and will contain further archaeological information, including evidence for the manner of its construction, environmental information relating to the Bronze Age period from the buried land surface, and possibly additional burial remains.

Details

The monument includes a Bronze Age bowl barrow situated in a field NNW of Eastburn Warren Farm. The barrow survives as a low mound 30m in diameter and 0.5m in height and is surrounded by a ditch about 2m wide, which, although infilled by ploughing through the course of time and therefore no longer visible at the ground level, will survive as a buried feature. The barrow mound was originally substantially larger, but its summit was removed around 1850, following which it was excavated by J R Mortimer in 1866. A primary crouched inhumation was found at the centre of the mound, accompanied by a crushed beaker. Over this lay an east-west orientated cremation trench containing masses of calcined human bones of which the remains of at least six adults were identified. A cist-like feature was found at one end of the barrow with evidence of a fire, but no burial. In addition to the primary burial and the main cremation, four secondary burials were also found within the fabric of the barrow, consisting of dismembered human bones to the east of the cremation trench, another cremation interred in a semicircular hole below the main cremation trench and two further crouched inhumations. The barrow is one of a pair in this field, two of the few survivors of the many Bronze Age barrows that once existed in this part of the Yorkshire Wolds.

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:

26530

Legacy System:

RSM

Sources

Books and journals
Mortimer, J R, Forty Years Researches in British and Saxon Burial Mounds of East Yorkshire, (1905), 235-7

Other
Bastow, M.E., AM107, (1990)
Walker, J., AM12, (1979)
Saunders, AD, AM7, (1966)
Humberside SMR, Sites and Monuments Records Sheet, (1994)
Bastow, M.E., AM107, (1994)
Bastow, M.E., AM107, (1988)

End of official list entry

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