Round barrow 390m south east of Lower Row Mires

Listed on the National Heritage List for England. Search over 400,000 listed places

Overview

Heritage Category:: Scheduled Monument
List Entry Number:: 1018407
Date first listed:: 22-Jan-1969

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Official list entry

Heritage Category:: Scheduled Monument
List Entry Number:: 1018407
Date first listed:: 22-Jan-1969
Date of most recent amendment:: 21-Jan-1999

Location

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

District:: North Yorkshire (Unitary Authority)
Parish:: Hartoft
National Park:: NORTH YORK MOORS
National Grid Reference:: SE 75747 96681

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 round barrow 390m south east of Low Mires is a good example of a small Bronze Age burial mound. The monument is especially important as it appears to have been undisturbed by antiquarian digging. Excavation of round barrows in the region have shown that they demonstrate a wide range of burial rites from simple scatters of cremated material to coffin inhumations and cremations contained in urns, typically dating to the Bronze Age. A common factor is that barrows were normally used for more than one burial and that the primary burial was frequently on or below the original ground surface, often with secondary burials located within the body of the mound. Most barrows include a small number of grave goods. These are often small pottery food vessels, but stone, bone, jet and bronze items have also occasionally been found. Shallow ditches and/or stone kerbs immediately encircling the mounds are also quite common.

Details

The monument includes the buried and earthwork remains of a prehistoric burial mound 390m south east of Lower Row Mires. The mound is approximately 9m in diameter and rises to 0.8m high. Its surface is mainly of earth, but also contains a scatter of stones typically 20cm-30cm across. There is no central depression or other evidence of disturbance by antiquarians. However, there is some superficial damage by shallow plough furrows across the mound related to forestry plantation. The round barrow is located on a hill spur between Priest's Sike Slack and Hartoft Beck and commands a good view southwards down the valley. Such positions are considered to have often formed the dual purpose of acting as a boundary marker in the Bronze Age between two areas of land.

MAP EXTRACT The site of the monument is shown on the attached map extract. It includes a 3 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:: 30147
Legacy System:: RSM

Sources

Other
Ordinance Survey record card, SE 79 NE 18, (1973)

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.