Neolithic long barrow 495m north of Moon Wood

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Overview

Heritage Category:: Scheduled Monument
List Entry Number:: 1013923
Date first listed:: 23-Aug-1934

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Official list entry

Heritage Category:: Scheduled Monument
List Entry Number:: 1013923
Date first listed:: 23-Aug-1934
Date of most recent amendment:: 24-May-2024
Location Description:: North-west of Claxby St Andrew, Lincolnshire. Centred at TF 44585 71902.

Location

The building or site itself may lie within the boundary of more than one authority.

County:: Lincolnshire
District:: East Lindsey (District Authority)
Parish:: Claxby St. Andrew
National Grid Reference:: TF4458171894

Summary

Neolithic long barrow, located 495m north of Moon Wood.

Reasons for Designation

The Neolithic long barrow 495m north of Moon Wood is scheduled for the following principal reasons:

* Survival: as a prehistoric long barrow confirmed to survive from geophysical survey and visible on aerial photography as a clearly defined crop mark and mound;

* Potential: for the buried archaeological deposits which retain considerable potential to provide evidence relating to social organisation and demographics, cultural associations, human development, disease, diet, and death rituals. Buried environmental evidence can also inform us about the landscape in which the barrows were constructed;

* Period: as one of very few monument types dating to the early prehistoric, it is highly representative of the period;

* Rarity: as an example of a monument type which is rare nationally and one of very few monument types to offer insight into the lives and deaths of early prehistoric communities in this country;

* Group value: for its close proximity to other contemporary and spatially-related scheduled monuments, most notably a long barrow 575m north-north-west of Moon Wood (NHLE 1013921) and another long barrow 480m north-east of Valley House (NHLE 1017464), with which it forms a group known as Deadmen’s Graves; the western and central barrows retain their mounds and are thought to be the only such pair of mounded long barrows now visible as earthworks in Lincolnshire.

History

Long barrows and chambered tombs are the main forms of Neolithic funerary monument, constructed from before 3800 BC with new monuments continuing to be built throughout the 4th millennium BC. Where they are precisely dated it appears their primary use for burial rarely lasted longer than about 100 years. Generally comprising long, linear earthen mounds or stone cairns, often flanked by ditches, they can appear as distinctive features in the landscape. They measure up to about 100m in length, 35m in width and 4m in height, and are sometimes trapezoidal or oval in plan. Earthen long barrows are found mostly in southern and eastern England and are usually unchambered, although some examples have been found to contain timber mortuary structures. Regional variation in construction is generally a reflection of locally available resources. Megalithic or stone, chambered tombs are most common in Scotland and Wales, but are also found in those parts of England with ready access to the large stones and boulders from which they are constructed, especially the Cotswolds, the South-West and Kent. There are around 540 long barrows recorded nationally.

Long barrows of the Lincolnshire Wolds have been identified as a distinct regional grouping of monuments in which the flanking ditches are continued around the ends of the barrow mound, either continuously or broken by a single causeway towards one end. A small number survive as earthworks but the majority are known from crop marks and soil marks where no or very low mounds are evident on the surface. Not all Lincolnshire long barrows had mounds and our current understanding of Neolithic mortuary practices in this part of the country is that the large barrow mound was in fact the final phase of construction which was not reached by all monuments. Previously many of the sites where only the ditched enclosure is known have been interpreted as a barrow where the mound has been degraded or removed by subsequent agricultural activity. In some cases the ditched enclosure (mortuary enclosure) represents a monument which never developed a mound.

The Neolithic long barrow 495m north of Moon Wood is one of a closely associated pair of long barrows known as Deadmen's Graves, which are thought to be the only such pair of mounded long barrows now visible as earthworks in Lincolnshire. The site of a third barrow was identified as a cropmark on aerial photographs and grouped with the others. This close association indicates the ritual significance of the location during the prehistoric period. The Neolithic long barrow 495m north of Moon Wood was first scheduled on 23 August 1934; the Schedule was later amended on 22 February 1996. No archaeological investigation is known to have taken place. Geophysical survey was undertaken in 2017 revealing the northern ditch of the barrow; no accompanying ditch was identified on its southern side.

Details

PRINCIPAL ELEMENTS: The earthwork remains of a probable Neolithic long barrow are located around 50m AOD at TF 44585 71902, around 495m north of Moon Wood. The earthwork is aligned east – west and lies on a south-facing slope above the valley of Burlands Beck. It is located on a short break of slope with the ground immediately to the south sloping very gently and then more steeply to the valley bottom. It stands as a prominent earthwork clearly visible from the public highway.

DESCRIPTION: The monument includes the earthwork and buried remains of a Neolithic long barrow. The barrow mound, aligned east – west, is visible on aerial photographs as an elongated and tapering earthwork. It measures around 63m in length and around 28m in width to the east of centre where the mound is prominent; the mound tapers to the west end to a width of around 15m. The mound has been damaged by past quarrying and appears as a rounded ‘mound’ at the eastern end, up to 1.5m high, with a low ‘spine’ (around 0.4m high) along part of the northern edge, which peters out to the west end to the same level as the surrounding ground on the north side of the monument. The western half of the monument has been affected by quarrying and an extensive badger sett. The quarry is roughly semi-circular, cut into the south-facing slope with a steep back edge. There has been no interference at the eastern end which will retain the highest concentration of mortuary evidence. Material for the mound would have been quarried from an encircling causewayed ditch; geophysical survey undertaken in 2017 revealed the northern ditch of the barrow survives beneath the present ground surface; no accompanying ditch was identified on its southern side.

The barrow is one of three long barrows within a single field, formally recorded together in NRHE 355624 and collectively known as Deadmen’s Graves. Two are surviving to some extent as earthworks; the other, the scheduled long barrow 575m north-north-west of Moon Wood (NHLE 1013921) lies around 110m to the north-west along the same hill contour. The site of the third (NHLE 1017464) lies around 65m to the north-east; it was identified as a cropmark on aerial photographs and grouped with the others.

EXTENT OF SCHEDULING: The scheduled area is marked on the attached map and includes a 5m buffer zone around the barrow which is considered necessary for the support and preservation of the monument. There are no exclusions from the scheduling.

Legacy

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

Legacy System number:: 27874
Legacy System:: RSM

Sources

Books and journals
Field, D, Earthen Long Barrows, The Earliest Monuments in the British Isles, (2006)
Jones, D (Author), Long Barrows and Neolithic Elongated Enclosures in Lincolnshire: An Analysis of the Air Photographic Evidence, Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society 64, (1998), 83-114
Last, J (ed), Beyond the Grave, New Perspectives on Barrows, (2007)
Woodward, A, British Barrows A Matter of Life and Death, (2000)
Websites
Lincolnshire Heritage Explorer, ‘Monument record MLI43620 – Deadmen’s Graves 2’, accessed 29 January 2024 from https://heritage-explorer.lincolnshire.gov.uk/Monument/MLI43318

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 Culture, Media and Sport.