Bowl barrow in Tongue Piece Holt

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 bowl barrow in Tongue Piece Holt survives in good condition as a substantial earthwork which is largely undisturbed. Valuable archaeological deposits, including funerary remains, will survive within and under the mound and in the fills of the surrounding ditch, providing information concerning the barrow's dating and construction. Environmental evidence preserved in these contexts will contain information on the character of the landscape in which the monument was set. The monument is one of a number of Bronze Age burial mounds associated with the prehistoric trackway now formalised as High Street and with the valley of the River Bain. These associations pose wider questions concerning both the ritual significance of the location and the demography and settlement patterns in the prehistoric period.

Details

The monument includes the earthwork and buried remains of a bowl barrow located about 130m above sea level on a plateau above and to the west of the River Bain. It is situated in Tongue Piece Holt, an area of woodland immediately adjacent to High Street. The roughly circular rounded mound measures approximately 22.5m in diameter and stands to a maximum height of 1m. Traces of the encircling ditch from which material for the mound would have been quarried are visible as slight depressions in the ground around the eastern perimeter of the barrow mound. Elsewhere the ditch is no longer visible, although the complete circuit is thought to survive buried beneath the present ground surface. The monument is one of a number of Bronze Age burial mounds in the area, including Biscathorpe bowl barrow some 150m to the north (SM 27878), and South Willingham bowl barrow about 400m to the south (SM 27875), all of which are associated with the valley of the River Bain and with High Street which is known to have originated as a prehistoric trackway. These barrows are the subject of separate schedulings. All fences and fenceposts are excluded from the scheduling, although the ground beneath them is included.

MAP EXTRACT The site of the monument is shown on the attached map extract. It 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:

27899

Legacy System:

RSM

End of official list entry

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