Summary
A Neolithic long barrow, centred at TF 42874 71106, one of a group of Neolithic long barrows to the north-west of Skendleby Lodge Farm known as Giants' Hills.
Reasons for Designation
Giants’ Hill I, a Neolithic long barrow 575m north-west of Lodge Farm is scheduled for the following principal reasons:
* Survival: as a Neolithic long barrow visible as clearly defined cropmarks and soil marks on aerial photography;
* Potential: for the buried 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 Neolithic, 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 us insights into the lives and deaths of early prehistoric communities in this country;
* Group value: for its close proximity to other contemporary or spatially-related scheduled monuments, in particular the other scheduled long barrows in the Giants’ Hills group, including Giant’s Hill II (approximately 150m to the south), and Giants’ Hill III (NHLE 1014935, approximately 150m to the north-west).
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 known as Giants’ Hill I was the subject of pioneering archaeological investigations by CW Phillips between 1933 and 1934, making a major contribution to our basic understanding of English long barrows, in particular the characterisation of the long barrows of the Lincolnshire Wolds as a distinctive regional group. The work demonstrated that, while the mortuary practices of the barrow builders bore a similarity to those previously investigated on the Yorkshire Wolds, Giants’ Hill I did not have the long, flanking ditches which were considered to be typical of the monument type. Instead, the ditch was shown to enclose the mound completely except for a causeway to the north-west, a feature which is now known to be a typical feature of many Lincolnshire long barrows.
Radiocarbon dating applied to the finds in the 1950s (one of the earliest examples of this method of dating) indicates that the monument's construction began around 2970BC, while Beaker pottery found within the mound demonstrates that the monument continued in use into the later Neolithic period. This very long period of construction and use – around 1,000 years - began with an enclosure set aside for mortuary activities. This enclosure, which contained evidence for hurdlework partitions, may have been used for the exposure of human remains, or it may have been the final resting place of remains exposed elsewhere. The skeletons of eight individuals were discovered, together with a quantity of bone fragments. The final phase was the construction of a substantial mound over the enclosure, material for this being quarried from the surrounding ditch. Pottery and other finds recovered from the ditch fill also demonstrates that the monument continued to be a focus of attention and activity during the Bronze Age and Iron Age. Although the investigations of 1933 were extensive, portions of the mound and ditch were left unexcavated, with the mound being subsequently reconstructed to its present appearance.
Giants’ Hill I, a Neolithic long barrow 575m north-west of Skendleby Lodge Farm was first scheduled in 1934, and the Schedule entry was amended in 1997. The long barrow was studied from aerial photographs taken in 1995 as part of the National Mapping Programme (NMP) and was included in D Jones’ long barrow and enclosure analysis published in 1998. Recent aerial photography and field survey carried out as part of the Lincolnshire Long Barrows project (2018) has provided greater understanding and accuracy in the identification and location of the group of long barrows known as Giants’ Hills.
Details
PRINCIPAL ELEMENTS: A Neolithic long barrow, centred at TF 42874 71106, one of a group of Neolithic long barrows to the north-west of Skendleby Lodge Farm known as Giants' Hills. It lies on the side of a valley slope approximately halfway between the Bluestone Heath Road to the north-east and a small tributary in the valley bottom by Fordington Holt that eventually feeds the River Lymn. The valley slope is fairly gentle, and the barrow faces the south-west at a height of approximately 67m AOD.
DESCRIPTION: The monument includes the partly reconstructed earthwork and buried remains of a Neolithic long barrow located 72m above sea level on the slope of a chalk ridge, abutting the south-western boundary of a cultivated field 575m north-west of Skendleby Lodge Farm. It is aligned north-west to south-east and is approximately 75m long by 35m wide, standing to a height of around 1.3m.
The barrow was the subject of pioneering archaeological investigations in 1933, making a major contribution to our basic understanding of English long barrows, in particular the characterisation of the long barrows of the Lincolnshire Wolds as a distinctive regional group. The work demonstrated that, while the mortuary practices of the barrow builders bore a similarity to those previously investigated on the Yorkshire Wolds, Giants Hill did not have the long, flanking ditches which were considered to be typical of the monument type. Instead, the ditch was shown to enclose the mound completely except for a causeway to the north-west, a feature which is now known to be a typical feature of many Lincolnshire long barrows. Radiocarbon dating applied to the finds in the 1950s indicates that the monument's construction began around 2970 BC while Beaker pottery found within the mound demonstrates that the monument continued in use into the later Neolithic period. This very long period of construction and use – around 1,000 years - began with an enclosure set aside for mortuary activities. This enclosure, which contained evidence for hurdlework partitions, may have been used for the exposure of human remains, or it may have been the final resting place of remains exposed elsewhere. The skeletons of eight individuals were discovered, together with a quantity of bone fragments. The final phase was the construction of a substantial mound over the enclosure, material for this being quarried from the surrounding ditch. Pottery found in the ditch also demonstrates that the monument continued to be a focus of attention and activity during the Bronze and Iron Ages. Portions of the mound and the ditch were left unexcavated for further study. The mound was reconstructed to its present appearance.
Valuable archaeological deposits will be preserved, on the buried ground surface and in the fills of the ditch. These will provide rare information concerning the dating and construction of the monument and the sequence of mortuary practices at the site. The same deposits may also retain environmental evidence illustrating the nature of the contemporary landscape in which the monument was set.
The long barrow is one of a group of four such monuments, three others of which form the subject of separate schedulings, all situated within 1km of each other along the eastern edge of the Skendleby Bank, and adjacent to the Bluestone Heath Road which is thought to have originated as a prehistoric trackway later overlain by the course of a Roman road. Giants’ Hill III, a scheduled Neolithic long barrow (NHLE 1014935) lies approximately 150m to the north-west. Giants’ Hill II lies approximately 150m to the south.
EXTENT OF SCHEDULING: The scheduled area is marked on the attached map and includes a 5m buffer zone which is considered necessary for the support and preservation of the monument. There are no known exclusions.
