Details

The monument includes a Neolithic long barrow situated on ground which falls
gently to the north-east, towards Rabbit Garth Slack. A second long barrow,
later re-used as the site of a Bronze Age bowl barrow, lies 1km to the north
of this monument.
Although altered by agricultural activity and partially excavated in the 19th
century, the barrow is still visible as a 0.3m high oblong mound, measuring
50m east-west by 20m north-south. The quarry ditches which flanked the barrow
have been infilled by gradual spreading of the mound material but, although
they are no longer visible as earthworks, the ditches survive below ground
and have been observed on aerial photographs. Including the ditches, the
barrow measures 50m by 30m overall. The long barrow was first excavated by
Canon Greenwell in 1866 and by J R Mortimer in 1868; the flanking ditches and
facade structures at the western end of the mound were identified, while
beneath the mound a series of deep pits with remains of both human and animal
burials were recorded.
It has been suggested that, in common with the long barrow to the north of
Cross Thorns Barn, a bowl barrow may have been added to the original long
barrow but the evidence for this is not conclusive.

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.

Source: Historic England

Reasons for Scheduling

Long barrows were constructed as earthen or drystone mounds with flanking
ditches and acted as funerary monuments during the Early and Middle Neolithic
periods (3400-2400 BC). They represent the burial places of Britain's early
farming communities and, as such, are amongst the oldest field monuments
surviving visibly in the present landscape. Where investigated, long barrows
appear to have been used for communal burial, often with only parts of the
human remains having been selected for interment. Certain sites provide
evidence for several phases of funerary monument preceding the barrow and,
consequently, it is probable that long barrows acted as important ritual sites
for local communities over a considerable period of time. Some 500 long
barrows are recorded in England. As one of the few types of Neolithic
structure to survive as earthworks, and due to their comparative rarity, their
considerable age and their longevity as a monument type, all long barrows are
considered to be nationally important.

Although the barrow has been partially altered by agricultural activity, it is
still visible as a slight earthwork and was also comparatively well-documented
during a campaign of fieldwork in the 19th century. Further evidence of the
structure of the mound, the flanking ditches and burials placed beneath the
mound, either on the old landsurface or in deep grave pits, will survive.
The monument is one of two closely associated long barrows which have wider
associations with the numerous broadly contemporary funerary monuments and
boundary earthworks on the Wolds. Such associations between monuments offer
important scope for the study of the division of land for social, ritual and
agricultural purposes in different geographical areas during the prehistoric
period.

Source: Historic England

Sources

Books and journals
Kinnes, I A, Longworth, I H, The Greenwell Collection, (1985), 144
Other
Stoertz, C, (1992)

Source: Historic England