Please read our guidance page about heritage designations.

Description

Reasons for Designation Long barrows were constructed as earthen or drystone mounds, generally with flanking ditches. They acted as funerary monuments during the Early and Middle Neolithic periods (3400-2400 BC), representing the burial places of Britain's early farming communities, and as such are amongst the oldest field monuments surviving 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 activities preceding the construction of the barrow mound, including ditched enclosures containing structures related to various rituals of burial. It is probable, therefore, that long barrows acted as important spiritual sites for their local communities over considerable periods of time. The long barrows of the Lincolnshire Wolds and their adjacent regions have been identified as a distinct regional grouping of monuments in which the flanking ditches are continued around the ends of the barrow mound, either continuously or broken by a single causeway towards one end. More than 60 examples of this type of monument are known; a small number of these survive as earthworks, but the great majority of sites are known as cropmarks and soilmarks recorded on aerial photographs where no mound is evident at the surface. Not all Lincolnshire long barrows include mounds. Current limited understanding of the processes of Neolithic mortuary ritual in Lincolnshire is that the large barrow mound represents the final phase of construction which was not reached by all mortuary monuments. Many of the sites where only the ditched enclosure is known have been interpreted as representing monuments which had fully evolved mounds, but in which the mound itself has been degraded or removed by subsequent agricultural activity. In a minority of cases, however, the ditched enclosure will represent a monument which never developed a burial mound. As a distinctive regional grouping of one of the few types of Neolithic monuments known, these sites are of great value. They were all in use over a great period of time and are thus highly representive of changing cultures of the peoples who built and maintained them. All forms of long barrow on the Lincolnshire Wolds and its adjacent regions are therefore considered to be of national importance and all examples with significant surviving remains are considered worthy of protection. Although the Neolithic long barrow 830m south west of Nimbleton Plantation cannot be seen on the ground it is clearly visible from the air as a cropmark indicating the presence of archaeological deposits buried beneath the present ground surface. These deposits will retain rare information concerning the barrow's dating and construction and the sequence of mortuary ritual at this site. Environmental evidence will also be preserved, illustrating the nature of the landscape in which the monument was constructed and used. The barrow is one of a number of similar monuments associated with the valley of the River Rase and with the prehistoric trackway now formalised as High Street. These associations pose wider questions concerning both prehistoric settlement patterns on the Lincolnshire Wolds and the ritual significance of the chosen locations. Details The monument includes the buried remains of a Neolithic long barrow which have been identified through air photography and which are located 136m above sea level on the northern slopes of the valley of the River Rase. It is situated about 800m south east of Goody Orchin Plantation, c.150m to the north of High Street. The buried ditch, which is clearly visible from the air as a cropmark, is approximately 64m in length by 28m wide. It is aligned south east-north west, and follows the contour of the slope on which it is situated. The north western end is rounded while that to the south east is straight. The remains of features associated with the mortuary ceremonies will survive within the central enclosure as buried features. This type of burial site is not thought ever to have been elaborated by the construction of a large earthen mound. The long barrow is one of a group of similar monuments associated with the valley of the River Rase and with the prehistoric trackway now formalised as High Street. Sources Books and journals Phillips, C W, 'Archaeologia' in Excavation of Giants' Hills Long Barrow, Skendleby, Lincs., , Vol. 85, (1936), 37-106 Other discussion, Jones, D, (1995) oblique monochrome photograph, Everson, P, 2975/19, (1979) oblique monochrome photograph, St Joseph, J K, BZU 11, (1979)

External Links (1)

Sources (2)

Location

Related Monuments/Buildings (1)