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 group of barrows dispersed from Huggate Pasture south
down to Warter Wold, which in turn is related to other barrows close by on
Huggate Wold. The location of the barrows close to an ancient greenway, and to
the very extensive systems of dykes and hollow ways dating back to the Bronze
Age, offers important insights into ancient land use and territorial divisions
for social, ritual and agricultural purposes in this area of the Yorkshire
Wolds.
Despite part excavation by J R Mortimer in 1882, and an earlier, unrecorded
excavation, and the effects of ploughing over many years, the barrow still
survives as a buried feature visible from aerial photographs, with below
ground remains including the infilled ditch, further burial pits and
archaeological information relating to its construction.
Details
The monument includes a Bronze Age bowl barrow on Huggate Pasture, 500m north
of Pasture Dale Plantation, in an area known as West Field. The monument is
one of three barrows lying close together, which form part of a much larger
group of bowl barrows dispersed across Huggate and Warter Wolds and Huggate
Pasture. Although altered over the years by agricultural activity which has
resulted in the virtual disappearance of the mound at ground level, the site
of the barrow can be observed as a low rise in the ground 0.1m in height and
is further defined as a circular concentration 18m in diameter of chalk and
flints in the ploughsoil. It will be surrounded by a ditch 3m wide which,
although infilled by ploughing and no longer visible at ground level, will
survive as a buried feature.
The three barrows were originally part of a larger cemetery of 19 bowl barrows
identified by J R Mortimer in the 1880s, running approximately north-south
from the vicinity of Huggate Pasture down to Warter Wold. This group lies to
the west of another group of 20 similar barrows identified by Mortimer, lying
dispersed across Huggate Wold. These barrows lie close to the ancient trackway
running on the western side of the Wolds, part of which survives today and is
known as the Wolds Way.
The sub-group of three barrows also lies within a complex of linear bank and
ditch systems, and should be viewed in the context of the wider ancient
landscape, where very extensive systems of banks, dykes and hollow ways
link large tracts of the countryside in this region of the Yorkshire Wolds.
The monument was subject to an unrecorded excavation by James Silburn in
October 1851, and subsequently was reopened by Mortimer in August 1882, who
found it to consist of loamy sediment, with clay brought in from outside
mixed in at the centre and base of the mound. At this time the barrow mound
still stood to a height of nearly 1m. The primary inhumation which had been
interred in a grave cut into the ground surface beneath the centre of the
mound was found to have been removed during Silburn's earlier excavation. From
an unexcavated portion of the grave at the northern end of the cut, Mortimer
found portions of a large antler of a red deer. Bones from a stout framed
individual were found at the south end of the grave, evidently redeposited
there by Silburn. A stone axehead and a broken urn were apparently found
during the course of this earlier excavation, which Mortimer attributed as an
offering in the original burial. The burial cut was oval, measuring around 1m
east-west by 1.6m wide and over 1m deep. The remains of a cremated body were
also found 5.5m east of the mound centre. The mound itself produced a large
number of flint flakes, three large sling stones, three scrapers and two
knives, all of local flint, together with many more flakes, a knife and a
barbed arrowhead of foreign flint.
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.
