One of four round barrows known as Robin Hood's Butts, 750m north east of Black Beck Swang

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.

Excavation of other round barrows in the region has shown that they demonstrate a very 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 located on or below the original ground surface, often with secondary burials 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. The barrow 750m north east of Black Beck Swang is one of an important group of barrows which includes a circular enclosure interpreted as an enclosed cremation cemetery, a rare Bronze Age funerary monument. Although partly excavated by Canon Atkinson, the barrow remains resonably well preserved and will retain important archaeological deposits including a primary burial at the base of the mound, together with additional secondary burials in the body of the mound.

Details

The monument includes the buried and earthwork remains of a large prehistoric burial mound on the eastern side of Gerrick Moor. Two barrows 190m and 380m to the west and a third, 840m to the WNW are also called Robin Hood's Butts and are all the subject of separate schedulings. The round barrow is intravisible with the others in the group and is sited on slightly sloping ground on the southern side of a broad WSW to ENE aligned ridge. The barrow is 27m in diameter and over 3m high with a depression up to 1.5m deep in its top. This depression is considered to have been left by Canon Atkinson who partly excavated the barrow in 1864. He described it as being 95 yards in circumference (27m diameter) and 13 feet high (nearly 4m). One urn, containing cremated bone and now part of the British Museum collection, was found about 0.5m south of the centre, 1.2m below the upper surface of the barrow. In looser soil on the eastern side of the barrow what was described as about a hatful of flint was collected, including large slices, flakes and some worked pieces. There is no ditch visible surrounding the barrow, although excavation of other barrows has shown that even where no encircling depression is discernible on the modern ground surface, ditches immediately around the outside of barrows frequently survive as infilled features containing additional archaeological deposits.

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:

30192

Legacy System:

RSM

Sources

Books and journals
Smith, M J B, Excavated Bronze Age Burial Mounds of Durham and N' land., (1994)

End of official list entry

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