Round Barrows Research Articles

Figures in the Rock? Experiencing the Avebury Cove at the Midsummer Sunrise

Despite published accounts suggesting the absence of solstitial alignments built into the architecture of the stone circle complex within the classic henge at Avebury, north Wiltshire, UK, empirical observations show that the group of stones and the space between them known as the Cove opens towards the midsummer sunrise. Although the window of visibility looking out from the Cove is broad, the sunrise position, on Monkton Down, is central to the field of view. A dip in the henge bank and the presence of a round barrow on the skyline serve to emphasise the point on the horizon where the Sun first appears. Looking inwards, the Cove provides a defined stage-like setting with the shadows of anyone performing there cast sharply onto the massive backstone for a period of about 30 minutes after sunrise. Comparisons are drawn with practices linked to animistic ontologies where rock surfaces become porous doorways into other realms during defined ceremonial observances.

English Landscapes

English Landscapes

Høj Stene – en monumental skibssætning ved Gudenåen

Høj Stene – en monumental skibssætning ved Gudenåen

Time Signatures: The Temporality of Monuments in Early and Middle Neolithic Britain

Analysis of radiocarbon dates has established the chronological contexts of three kinds of Neolithic monument in Britain: long mounds or long cairns, causewayed enclosures, and cursuses. It is more difficult to appreciate how such structures developed over time. The building of a barrow or cairn was sometimes the final act in a place that had already experienced a longer history. The construction of the monument brought activities to an end, and the site was effectively closed. Individual sequences were shorter than once thought but might be repeated at different locations over several hundred years.On the other hand, the construction of causewayed enclosures according to a widely accepted template occurred almost simultaneously. Once those earthworks were established some went out of use, but a few others were adapted and changed so that they could play an increasing variety of roles over a longer period. The same contrasts are illustrated by cursuses. Timber structures in the north had finite histories before they decayed or were destroyed by fire, whilst earthworks had a wider distribution and enjoyed a longer currency. A similar approach might shed light on later monuments, including henges, stone circles, and round barrows. It is important to consider how the chronologies of all these structures are related to past conceptions of time.

MONUMENTS AND LANDSCAPE: INVESTIGATING A PREHISTORIC MONUMENT COMPLEX AT LOCHBROW, DUMFRIES AND GALLOWAY

This paper presents the results of a survey project investigating a complex of prehistoric archaeological sites at Lochbrow, in Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland. An Early Neolithic timber cursus, Late Neolithic or Early Bronze Age timber circles and Bronze Age round barrows were first recorded as cropmarks on aerial photographs in the 1980s and 1990s. The Lochbrow Landscape Project set out to investigate and understand this lesser-known complex of prehistoric sites and their layout in the landscape using non-destructive survey techniques, including geophysical survey, experiential survey and re-assessment of aerial photographs. A pilot survey was undertaken in 2010 followed by a series of short field seasons from 2011 to 2015. Interpretation of the results from geophysical survey has proved challenging because of strong geological and geomorphological signals, but has been successful in detecting both the features known from aerial photographs and additional archaeological features. The simple step of marking out the known archaeology on the ground has provided additional insights into the landscape context of the known monuments and elements of their morphology. This indicates that the monuments were closely tied to their landscape context and that the monument boundaries were used to influence the experience of being within the monuments. Overall, the research has been successful in enriching our understanding of the complex of prehistoric sites known at Lochbrow.

Other Types of Meaning: Relationships between Round Barrows and Landscapes from 1500 bc–ac 1086

This paper is about Bronze Age round barrows and the ways in which they became caught up in human practices over an extended time period. At one level it belongs to a flourishing body of work that examines the ‘re-use’ or ‘biography’ of prehistoric monuments. Rather than treating the latter as a generic group, however, this study focuses on chronologies of one specific monument type—round barrows—over a 2600-year period from 1500 bc–ac 1086. By bringing together evidence and interpretations generated mainly within period specialisms, significant homogeneities are revealed in terms of how activities at prehistoric monuments have previously been understood. The possibilities for seeking out different interpretative ground are duly explored. Using a case study from the east of England and drawing on evidence and ideas from much more broadly, the approach taken places particular emphasis on examining relationships between round barrows and other aspects of landscape. The findings offer fresh insight into the temporality of activities undertaken at round barrows, question existing characterizations of past people's historical understandings, and explore the long-term coherence of ‘round barrows’ as a category.

A Bronze Age Round Barrow Cemetery, Pit Alignments, Iron Age Burials, Iron Age Copper Working, and Later Activity at Four Crosses, Llandysilio, Powys

Excavation undertaken at the Upper Severn valley round barrow cemetery at Four Crosses, Llandysilio, Powys, between 2004 and 2006 has increased the known barrows and ring ditches to some twenty-seven monuments within this complex, and revealed additional burials. Based on limited dating evidence, and the data from earlier excavations, the majority of the barrows are thought to be constructed in the Bronze Age. The barrows are considered part of a larger linear cemetery. The landscape setting and wider significance of this linear barrow cemetery are explored within this report. Dating suggests two barrows were later, Iron Age additions. The excavation also investigated Iron Age and undated pit alignments, Middle Iron Age copper working and a small Romano-British inhumation cemetery and field systems. Much of this evidence reflects the continuing importance of the site for ritual and funerary activity.

‘Held in Place’: Round Barrows in the Later Bronze Age of Lowland Britain

This paper presents a systematic study of later Bronze Age practices at round barrows – features that are typically seen as emblematic of the Early Bronze Age in Britain. Examining the evidence from 87 excavated round barrows in the east of England, it adds subtlety and empirical detail to previous discussions about the changing role of funerary monuments over the course of the 2nd millenniumbc. A wide variety of activities was undertaken at existing round barrows in the later Bronze Age. Burials were added, the monuments themselves were augmented and replicated, they were often actively built into land boundary systems, and settlements were located close to them. The findings not only attest to the continued (if shifting) significance of round barrows in the later Bronze Age, they also contribute substantially to wider debates about the character of life during this period in lowland Britain – the shifting relationship between ‘ritual’ and ‘everyday’ practices, and the processes by which mobile communities began to settle down. More broadly, this investigation adds to a growing body of work that explores the multi-temporal qualities of later prehistoric landscapes.

On the Curious Date of the Rylstone Log-Coffin Burial

Radiocarbon dates have been obtained from a log-coffin burial excavated in 1864 by Canon William Greenwell from a ditched round barrow at Scale House, near Rylstone, North Yorkshire. The oak tree-trunk coffin had contained an extended body wrapped in a wool textile. The body had entirely decayed and there were no other extant grave goods. In the absence of other grave goods, Greenwell attributed the burial to the Bronze Age because it lay under a ditched round barrow and had similarities with log-coffin burials from Britain and Denmark. This attribution has not been questioned since 1864 despite a number of early medieval log-coffin burials subsequently being found in northern Britain. Crucially, the example excavated near Quernmore, Lancashire in 1973, was published as Bronze Age but subsequently radiocarbon dated to ad 430–970. The Rylstone coffin and textile were radiocarbon dated to confirm that the burial was Early Bronze Age and not an early medieval coffin inserted into an earlier funerary monument. Unexpectedly, the dates were neither Early Bronze Age nor early medieval but c. 800 bc, the cusp of the Bronze Age–Iron Age transition in Britain. The burial at Rylstone is, therefore, one of only two sites in Britain, and is unparalleled elsewhere in north-western Europe at a time when disposal of the dead was primarily through dispersed cremated or unburnt disarticulated remains.

Once a Sacred and Secluded Place: Early Bronze Age Monuments at Church Lawton, near Alsager, Cheshire

Two round barrows were excavated in 1982–3 at Church Lawton near to the eastern edge of the Cheshire and Staffordshire Plain. One of the barrows was defined by a ring of nine glacial boulders and it is possible that these monoliths initially formed a free-standing stone circle. The remains constitute a rare example of the use of stone to enhance a Bronze Age barrow in the lowlands of central western England. Beneath the mound demarcated by the boulders were the burnt remains of a small, roughly rectangular turf stack associated with fragments of clay daub and pieces of timber. No direct evidence of burial was found within the monument. A radiocarbon date suggests that the structural sequence began sometime in the late 3rd–early 2nd millennium calbc. The other barrow was principally a two-phased construction and contained urned and un-urned cremation burials. A battle-axe was placed next to one of the burials. Radiocarbon dates obtained from the cremations and associated deposits indicate that individuals were being interred from the late 3rd or early 2nd millennium calbc, with the practice continuing until the middle of the 2nd millennium. The barrows formed part of a cemetery, consisting of three known mounds.

The Afterlife of Monuments in the English Peak District: The Evidence of Early Bronze Age Burials

SummaryThis research is an investigation of the locations of Late Neolithic and Early Bronze Age round barrows in the Peak District. The work involved close examination of the barrows present around two earlier monuments: the Long Low bank barrow and the henge at Arbor Low. Using a Geographic Information System, it considered the densities of the barrows around these focal monuments, inter‐visibility between the sites, and the distribution of distinctive artefacts in the surrounding area. The results raise important questions about the role of memory in the past.

Stonehenge, Wiltshire, UK: High Resolution Geophysical Surveys in the Surrounding Landscape, 2011

An extensive high-resolution geophysical survey covering 2 km2was undertaken to the north of Stonehenge in June and October 2011. The survey is important in providing, for the first time, abundant detail on the form and structure of the Stonehenge Cursus, including the recognition of entrances in both of the long sides. Much additional information about the internal form of round barrows in the Cursus Round Barrow Cemetery, the course of the Avenue, the course of the so-called Gate Ditch, and numerous tracks and early roads crossing the landscape was recorded. A series of previously unrecognized features were identified: a pit-arc or cove below a barrow on the west side of King Barrow Ridge, a square-shaped feature surrounded by pits on the east side of Stonehenge Bottom, and a linear ditch on the same solstical axis, and parallel to, the southern section of the Stonehenge Avenue. An extensive scatter of small metallic anomalies marking the position of camping grounds associated with the Stonehenge Free Festival in the late 1970s and early 1980s raise interesting conservation and management issues.

Bronze Age barrows at Longstone Edge: Taphonomy and site formation

The taphonomy of the small vertebrate fauna from Longstone Edge is compared and contrasted with the site formation processes of the Bronze Age round barrows from which they were recovered. The microfauna may provide important clues about the site formation processes of the barrows, including access to and exposure of the structures in different periods. Two contexts, the earth barrow 1 and the burial cists beneath barrow 1, have rich small vertebrate faunas preserved, and taphonomic evidence of breakage and digestion provides evidence of two predators responsible for the accumulation of the faunas. The preservation context indicates that the predators were nesting or roosting on the ground. Three other contexts in barrow 1 (subsoil, stone mound underlying the earth mound, and a later fissure cutting across the mound) have only scattered remains, and barrow 2 also has dispersed remains. The taphonomy and site formation processes of the two Longstone Edge barrows complement each other, but the nature of the evidence from the two sources is quite different: taphonomy is a constructive discipline that adds information to animal and plant assemblages, shows what processes were operating in the past, and allows us to retrieve the original information of past ecosystems. Site formation processes and destruction of the structural elements that make up the barrows may show how the site was formed, and how it has deteriorated over time. Attempts to refer to both subjects as aspects of taphonomy are misguided.

Report on the Excavation at the Duggleby Howe Causewayed Enclosure, North Yorkshire, May—July 2009

The Neolithic round barrow at Duggleby Howe comprises a substantial mound surrounded by a large causewayed ditch. The mound covers a rich Middle Neolithic burial sequence, as revealed by Mortimer's nineteenth-century excavations, and occupies a position on the northern valley side of the Gypsey Race, near to the stream's source. Following the recent radiocarbon dating of the burial sequence and primary mound building, a small research excavation was undertaken across the ditch of the large, penannular causewayed enclosure that surrounds the mound primarily in order to obtain artefactual and ecofactual material from which to construct a relative and absolute chronology for the ditch sequence(s).

Et depotfund fra yngre bronzealder – Nymølle Bro ved Lisbjerg

Et depotfund fra yngre bronzealder – Nymølle Bro ved Lisbjerg

Excavation and Survey at Dyffryn Lane Henge Complex, Powys, and a Reconsideration of the Dating of Henges

The henge monument and round barrow at Dyffryn Lane, near Welshpool, Powys, represent a rare instance of earthwork survival amongst the Neolithic and Bronze Age monuments of the upper Severn Valley. Antiquarian excavation in response to agricultural degradation suggested that the monument represented a round barrow covering a stone circle. Whether these stones represented a stone circlesensu strictoor a stone kerb for a turf barrow, was not determined at the time. Aerial photography subsequently demonstrated that the barrow as surrounded by a single-entranced henge monument. The present excavation was designed to assess the degree of plough damage to the site, determine the nature of the circular arrangement of stones, investigate the development of the site, and retrieve absolute dating and palaeoenvironmental material for the various phases encountered. Excavation has demonstrated that the site saw the ritual deposition of Impressed Ware pottery prior to a stone circle being erected on the site. This circle was allowed to decay before being encircled by a henge and subsequently covered by a round mound. The site adds to a small but growing body of evidence suggesting the lateness of the henge element within multi-phased monuments.

An investigation of the origins of cattle and aurochs deposited in the Early Bronze Age barrows at Gayhurst and Irthlingborough

The Early Bronze Age round barrows at Irthlingborough, Northamptonshire and Gayhurst, Buckinghamshire contained remarkably large quantities of cattle ( Bos taurus) remains. At Irthlingborough, at least 185 skulls with smaller numbers of mandibles, shoulder blades and pelves were found together with a small number of skeletal elements from aurochs ( Bos primigenius). In contrast, the remains from Gayhurst are dominated by the limb bones from more than 300 animals. This study employed strontium isotope ratio analysis of cattle tooth enamel from 15 cattle and one aurochs to investigate the diversity of the animals' origins at both sites and provide insights into Early Bronze Age funerary practices. Although strontium results show that most of the cattle and the aurochs included in this study were consistent with local origins, one animal from each barrow was born remotely, most likely in western Britain. In addition, a second Gayhurst animal was consistent with origins in a region of chalk rather than the local Jurassic sediments.

Recent Research at Duggleby Howe, North Yorkshire

Excavated by John Mortimer at the end of the nineteenth century, Duggleby Howe, near the source of the Gypsey Race in the Yorkshire Wolds, is one of the most iconic round barrow sites of the British Neolithic, not least because of Mortimer's detailed description, his schematic section and the range of prestige goods associated with the burials. Despite the re-assessment of Mortimer's archive by other authorities over the last twenty years, no absolute dates existed for this important burial sequence. This project re-examines not just the burial evidence, but also the associated earthworks of the barrow including the first geophysical and topographical survey of the surrounding causewayed enclosure. The report also provides a radiocarbon-dated chronology for the burial sequence and mound construction, as well as an assessment of the surviving human and faunal remains.

Reconstructing visual landscapes

The following paper reiterates the importance of studying past visibility patterns within the context of landscape archaeology. In spite of the many difficulties and criticisms revolving around this topic, efforts aimed at reconstructing these patterns and exploring their possible roles are considered to be central to the reconstruction of social landscapes. This paper extends previous GIS work done on inter-visibility by making reference to the concept of ‘co-visibility’, by exploring the way in which visibility of any monument or set of monuments is shared with that of other monuments. A subset of round barrows from the Yorkshire Wolds (northern England) is used to illustrate this work. The study also underlines the need to address the variability which is often present in archaeological data, variability, in this case, of visibility patterns associated with the barrows due to our lack of precise chronological information.

Redcastle, Lunan Bay, Angus

Cropmarks of a cemetery containing square- and round-ditched burials were excavated at Redcastle in 1997 and 1998. A total of sixteen graves was recorded: five in square barrows, two in round barrows and nine unenclosed graves. Another round barrow is clearly visible on the aerial photograph outside the excavation area. Preservation of the graves and the human remains therein varied considerably. Analysis of the bones identified two females, three possible females and one possible male. Radiocarbon dating showed that the burials dated from the third to eighth centuries AD. There was no readily apparent connection between gender or age and the use of square or round ditches to enclose the graves. Some evidence was recovered for Neolithic activity in the area while the remains of a timber-lined souterrain were also excavated. The fill of the souterrain contained a range of artefacts including native and Roman pottery, Roman glass and iron tools. Detailed palaeoenvironmental studies were undertaken of the basal deposits in an attempt to clarify the use of the souterrain. Radiocarbon dates indicate that it was in use prior to and during the first to fourth centuries AD. Includes separately authored reports on