Round barrow on Skipwith Common, 810m south of Skipwith Church

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 barrow 810m south of Skipwith church, one of a group on Skipwith Common, survives well as it escaped the disturbance from intensive agriculture which has affected the majority of sites in this region. Excavation of similar sites elsewhere have shown that round barrows 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.

Details

The monument includes the buried and earthwork remains of a prehistoric burial mound located on the northern side of Skipwith Common, 800m south of Skipwith church. The round barrow survives as a 6m diameter round topped mound standing up to 1m high with evidence of a mainly infilled encircling ditch 2m wide. The mound has a small central depression up to 0.3m deep and is skirted on its northern side by a footpath. It is one of a group of four Bronze Age round barrows surviving as upstanding earthworks on Skipwith Common. Centred 1km to the west, there is a square barrow cemetery of Iron Age date which also survives as upstanding earthworks.

MAP EXTRACT The site of the monument is shown on the attached map extract. It includes a 2 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:

30177

Legacy System:

RSM

Sources

Books and journals
Elgee, F, The Archaeology of Yorkshire, (1933)

Other
Typescript report, MAP Archaeological Consultancy, Skipwith Common Presentation Survey, (1995)

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