Summary
A long barrow located 800m south-west of Kirmond Top. The monument is under reversion.
Reasons for Designation
The long barrow 800m south-west of Kirmond Top is scheduled for the following principal reasons:
* Survival: as a clearly defined crop mark of a long barrow representing the burial practices, beliefs and social organisation amongst early prehistoric communities;
* 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 period, 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.
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 long barrow south west of Kirmond Top was first scheduled in 1998. The barrow is visible from aerial photography as a cropmark which was first identified in 1976. The monument is one of a number of long barrows associated with the prehistoric trackway now formalised as High Street (B1225) which is situated 200m to the east. Elements of a field system (Iron Age/Roman) have been mapped in the vicinity. There is potential that these respected the position of the barrow. The barrow is approximately on the line of a roughly north-south post-medieval field boundary mapped to the north of the monument.
Details
Principal elements: the long barrow is located approximately 800m south-west of Kirmond Top and to the west of the B1225 High Street. It is aligned north-west to south-east near to the top of the rise occupied by High Street. The land slopes very gradually down to the north-west in this part of the valley side that overlooks the River Rase. The tapering end of the barrow follows the direction of the slope to the north-west. The barrow is situated above a small fold in the valley side that may indicate a previous spring line. The barrow lies at approximately 143m AOD and is centred on grid reference TF1761 9051.
Description: Although the monument cannot be seen from the ground it is visible on aerial photography as a cropmark (an area of enhanced crop growth caused by higher moisture levels retained by the fills of underlying archaeological features). The trapezoidal enclosure, defined by a ditch, measures a maximum of 38m long by a maximum of 19m wide overall. The in-filled and buried ditch is thought to be up to 5m in width, and its circuit is complete. The absence of a causeway across the ditch suggest that the monument is an example of the simpler form of Lincolnshire Wolds long barrow. These smaller barrows do not show evidence for the construction of a large mound on completion of the funerary rituals.
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 will also retain environmental evidence illustrating the nature of the landscape in which the monument was set.
Extent of scheduling: the scheduled area is shown on the accompanying map extract and is designed to protect the buried remains of the Neolithic long barrow that lies 800m south-west of Kirmond Top. It lies within an area of grass reversion and includes a 5m boundary around the barrow ditch, which is considered to be necessary for the monument's support and preservation.
