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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. 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 historical 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. Although the long barrow and bowl barrow 680m ESE of Manor House have been denuded by ploughing, rare and valuable archaeological deposits will be preserved in the buried ground surfaces and in the fills of the ditches. These will provide information concerning the dating and construction of the barrows and the sequence of mortuary practices at the site. The same deposits will also retain environmental evidence illustrating the nature of the landscape in which the barrows were set. The area of buried ground surface between the two barrows will retain evidence for ritual and funerary activities relating to the sites over a considerable length of time, and may provide indications of the evolving nature of religious beliefs during this period. The close association of these barrows demonstrates the continuing ritual significance of the location and has wider implications for the study of demography and settlement patterns from the Neolithic period into the Bronze Age. Details The monument includes the buried remains of a Neolithic long barrow and a Bronze Age bowl barrow situated on the north eastern slopes of the valley of the River Lymn, some 680m ESE of Manor House. Although the barrows cannot be seen on the ground, their infilled and buried ditches are represented as cropmarks visible from the air and have been recorded on aerial photographs. The long barrow appears as an elongated oval enclosure orientated north west-south east, defined by an infilled and buried encircling ditch some 55m long by 30m wide. The ditch is unbroken by a causeway, a form characteristic of the simpler type of Lincolnshire Wolds long barrow which is thought to have been unelaborated by a large earthwork mound. The buried remains of a Bronze Age bowl barrow lie some 70m north west of the long barrow. The bowl barrow mound, which has been reduced by ploughing, is defined by an infilled and buried circular ditch approximately 25m in diameter. Material used in the construction of the mound over the primary burial would have been quarried from this ditch. The area of ground between the two barrows is thought to contain archaeological deposits relating to ritual and constructional activities focussed on the two barrows and is therefore included in the scheduling. Sources Books and journals Burl, A, The Stonehenge People, (1989) Phillips, C W, 'Archaeologia' in Excavation of Giants' Hills Long Barrow, Skendleby, Lincs., , Vol. 85, (1936), 37-106 Other discussions, Jones, D, (1995) NMP aerial survey plot, TF3373:LI.76.3.1, (1992) NMP aerial survey plot, TF3373:LI.76.3.1, (1992)

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