Neolithic long barrow 300m north-west of Lake Farm

Summary

A Neolithic long barrow which lies 300m north-west of Lake Farm. Evident as cropmarks in aerial photographs.

Reasons for Designation

The Neolithic long barrow 300m north-west of Lake Farm is scheduled for the following principal reasons:  
* Survival: as a clearly defined cropmark and slight earthwork representing the burial practices, beliefs and social organisation amongst early prehistoric communities; 

* 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 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 us insight into the lives and deaths of early prehistoric communities in this country; 

* Group value: for its close proximity to other monuments which contribute to the understanding of the continuity and change in the use of this important landscape.

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 300m north-west of Lake Farm was first scheduled in July 1999 based on aerial photographic evidence from 1969 which showed the ditched enclosure both as crop and soil marks. Geophysical survey was undertaken in February 2018, this confirmed the form and location of the barrow but also identified other features within the area. A trial trench excavation followed which confirmed the presence of the long barrow enclosing ditch and additional features with 56 sherds of Roman pottery being found in two later ditches.

Details

PRINCIPAL ELEMENTS: a Neolithic long barrow aligned north-east to south-west defined by a roughly oval ditched enclosure. The barrow is located near to the crest of a south-east facing slope at the head of a shallow and narrow dry valley that may once have fed the Waithe Beck. To the east the site overlooks Croxby Pond. The site lies approximately 68m AOD.

DESCRIPTION: the Neolithic long barrow is visible on aerial photographs (APs) as a roughly oval ditched enclosure measuring 50m long by 22.5m wide with convex terminals. The barrow mound shows as a slight earthwork on vertical photographs and a digital elevation model (DEM). This is supported by soilmarks within the centre of the ditched enclosure which also suggest the presence of a low but diminished mound. The geophysical survey did not reveal any indication of an internal mound.

In 1969 APs also identified other enclosure cropmarks of mostly rectilinear form in the immediate vicinity of the barrow, but these do not form part of the scheduled area.

The geophysical survey (2018) confirmed that the later enclosures respect the position of the long barrow suggesting that it was still an extant feature in the landscape in the Iron Age to Roman period. A single trial trench excavated (2019) at the north-east corner of the long barrow recorded a section of the ditch. It lay at the point where the long barrow ditch was cut by those of the later enclosures which contained Roman pottery.

The scheduling includes the full extent of the long barrow as defined by its ditch and an area of its former mound which has been spread to its north-west. The spread of the former mound partly overlies a small trapezoidal ditch-defined enclosure of probable Iron Age to Roman date which appears to be annexed onto the north-west side of the long barrow. The presence of this enclosure beneath the spread mound means it is likely to have resulted in the preferential preservation of the archaeological deposits within this area.

Valuable archaeological deposits will be preserved in the mound, 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.

EXTENT OF SCHEDULING: the site of the monument is shown on the attached map extract. The scheduling includes a 5 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:

29743

Legacy System:

RSM

Sources

Books and journals
Last, J, Beyond the Grave, New Perspectives on Barrows, (2007)
Jones, D, Long Barrows and Neolithic Elongated Enclosures in Lincolnshire: An Analysis of the Air Photographic Evidence. Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society 64, 1998, pp83-114, (1998)
Field, D, Earthen Long Barrows, The Earliest Monuments in the British Isles, (2006)
Woodward, A, British Barrows A Matter of Life and Death, (2000)

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