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Description

Summary Neolithic long barrow 330m north of Top Buildings. Reasons for Designation The long barrow 330m north of Top Buildings is scheduled for the following principal reasons: * Survival: as a probable Neolithic long barrow visible as cropmarks and earthworks from aerial photographs. Subsequent orthophotography and height data suggest the presence of a mound; * Potential: for the buried archaeological deposits which retain considerable potential to provide evidence relating to social organisation and demographics, cultural associations, human development, disease, diet, and death rituals. Buried environmental evidence can also inform us about the landscape in which the barrows were constructed; * Period: as one of very few monument types dating to the Neolithic, it is highly representative of the period; * Rarity: as an example of a monument type which is rare nationally and one of very few monument types to offer us insights into the lives and deaths of early prehistoric communities in this country; * Group value: for its close proximity to other contemporary or spatially related scheduled monuments, notably Top Buildings long barrow (NHLE 1013887) and the long barrow 400m south-south-east of Radio Station (NHLE 1013909). Also in the field to the north are three bowl barrows (NHLEs 1013895, 1013897 and 1013898). History Long barrows and chambered tombs are the main forms of Neolithic funerary monument, constructed from before 3800 BC with new monuments continuing to be built throughout the 4th millennium BC. Where they are precisely dated it appears their primary use for burial rarely lasted longer than about 100 years. Generally comprising long, linear earthen mounds or stone cairns, often flanked by ditches, they can appear as distinctive features in the landscape. They measure up to about 100m in length, 35m in width and 4m in height, and are sometimes trapezoidal or oval in plan. Earthen long barrows are found mostly in southern and eastern England and are usually unchambered, although some examples have been found to contain timber mortuary structures. Regional variation in construction is generally a reflection of locally available resources. Megalithic or stone chambered tombs are most common in Scotland and Wales but are also found in those parts of England with ready access to the large stones and boulders from which they are constructed, especially the Cotswolds, the South-West and Kent. There are around 540 long barrows recorded nationally. Long barrows of the Lincolnshire Wolds 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. A small number survive as earthworks, but the majority are known from crop marks and soil marks where no or very low mounds are evident on the surface. Not all Lincolnshire long barrows had mounds and our current understanding of Neolithic mortuary practices in this part of the country is that the large barrow mound was in fact the final phase of construction which was not reached by all monuments. Previously many of the sites where only the ditched enclosure is known have been interpreted as a barrow where the mound has been degraded or removed by subsequent agricultural activity. In some cases, the ditched enclosure (mortuary enclosure) represents a monument which never developed a mound. The long barrow 330m north of Top Buildings was first discovered in 2000, however the crop mark was of a very poor quality so its interpretation was uncertain. Subsequent orthophotography and height data suggest the presence of a central mound, further supporting the positive identification of the site as a barrow. Details Principal Elements The long barrow, mapped from aerial photographs lies on moderately level ground at the east of the valley head. It is located 285m north-north-west of Top Buildings Long Barrow (NHLE 1013887) to the west of B1225 High Street at 160m AOD. Description The probable Neolithic long barrow is visible as cropmarks and earthworks on aerial sources centred at TF 1326 9674. The best definition is in oblique images dated to 2000 which define a roughly rectilinear ditched enclosure elongated north-north-west to south-south-east, measuring 42m by 22m. 2008 orthophotography shows the amorphous cropmark of a compacted surface within this, presumably of the mound. Similarly, a digital elevation model derived from 2008 2m gridded height data also shows a very shallow earthwork mound at the same location, suggesting the plough-spread remains of the mound. Archaeological remains will be preserved in the spread mound, on the buried ground surface and in the fills of the ditch. These will provide rare information concerning the dating and construction of the monument and the sequence of mortuary practices at the site. The same deposits may also retain environmental evidence illustrating the nature of the contemporary landscape in which the monument was set. To the south-south-east of the monument lie the remains of currently scheduled Top Buildings long barrow (NHLE 1013887). There may have been intervisibility with this barrow and the scheduled barrow 400m south-south-east of Radio Station (NHLE 1013909). In the field to the north are three bowl barrows (NHLE 1013895, 1013897 and 1013898). Three chalk pits lie in the field immediately to the south of the barrow, and one immediately to the north-west but these do not form part of the scheduling. Extent of Scheduling The scheduling includes the full extent of the long barrow plus a 5m buffer zone considered necessary for the support and preservation of the monument. Sources Books and journals Field, D, Earthen Long Barrows, The Earliest Monuments in the British Isles, (2006) Last, J (Editor), Beyond the Grave, New Perspectives on Barrows, (2007) Woodward, A, British Barrows A Matter of Life and Death, (2000) Jones, D, '‘Long Barrows and Neolithic Elongated Enclosures in Lincolnshire: An Analysis of the Air Photographic Evidence' in Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society , , Vol. 64, (1998), 83-114

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