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Description

Summary Neolithic long barrow surviving as a cropmark and soilmark. Reasons for Designation The long barrow 480m south-east of Acre House is scheduled for the following principal reasons: * Survival: as a clearly defined crop mark representing the burial practices, beliefs and social organisation amongst early prehistoric communities; * 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 early prehistoric period, 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 insight into the lives and deaths of early prehistoric communities in this country; * Group value: as one of a group of similar monuments in the area which are associated with the Nettleton and Otby Becks, and with the prehistoric trackway now formalised as the B1225 (High Street). The long barrows at Top Buildings and 400m SSE of radio station, to the east and south-east respectively, are both scheduled. These associations pose wider questions regarding the ritual significance of this area and the settlement patterns of the societies who constructed the monuments. 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 cropmarks (an area of enhanced crop growth caused by higher moisture levels retained by the fills of underlying archaeological features) 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 480m south-east of Acre House, Normanby le Wold, which survives as a soilmark and cropmark, was first identified in the 1990s and was scheduled in 1999. The site was the subject of geophysical survey in 2017 which confirmed the presence of the enclosure ditch together with internal features. Details Principal elements The monument includes the buried remains of a Neolithic long barrow situated on gently sloping ground near to the crest of the Wolds escarpment 480m south-east of Acre House on the east side of Viking Way at approximately 160m AOD. The crest of the hill lies at 168m AOD. The land to the west of Viking Way drops sharply to the wide valley through which the River Ancholme runs. Description The remains of the long barrow are located in an area of grass reversion within a field of winter wheat to the north. The monument has been reduced by ploughing and is no longer visible on the ground but it can be clearly seen from the air and has been recorded as a cropmark and soil mark on aerial photographs, centred at TF 1171 9633. The cropmark shows the infilled and buried ditch enclosing an area set aside for funerary activities and rituals. The barrow mound is evident on aerial photographs as a compacted surface, elongated north to south, measuring approximately 44m by 15.2m, although subsequent geophysical survey confirms the enclosure to be some 48m in length and 18.6m wide with an apparent break in the enclosing ditch on the south eastern side. The ditch is somewhat amorphous but is approximately 3.1m to 3.5m wide. A feature recorded in the southern half of the barrow enclosure, is suggestive of some internal arrangement or structure, perhaps even a burial. Also of interest is an amorphous area of water retentive deposits surrounding the barrow enclosure and ditch which was recorded on aerial photographs. Although irregular in shape it roughly respects the shape of the barrow and has potential to offer important archaeological information in relation to the use of the barrow. It was originally thought that a post-medieval chalk pit, located to the west of the barrow, had truncated the ditch on the western side but the geophysical survey proved this not to be the case. Valuable archaeological deposits will be preserved on the buried ground surface beneath any surviving mound material, within the fills of the ditch and within the water retentive deposits. These have the potential to provide rare information concerning the dating and construction of the monument and the sequence of mortuary practices carried out at the site. The same deposits also have the potential to retain environmental evidence illustrating the nature of the contemporary landscape at the time the monument was built. The long barrow is one of a group of similar monuments in the area which are associated with the Nettleton and Otby Becks, and with the prehistoric trackway now formalised as the B1225 (High Street). The long barrows at Top Buildings and 400m SSE of radio station, to the east and south-east respectively, are both scheduled. Extent of Scheduling: the area of scheduling includes the remains of the barrow mound, the surrounding ditch, features identified within the enclosure and the area of water retaining deposits surrounding the barrow. It also includes a 5m buffer around these features which is 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 (ed), Beyond the Grave, New Perspectives on Barrows, (2007) Woodward, A, British Barrows A Matter of Life and Death, (2000) Other Jones, D. 1998 ‘Long Barrows and Neolithic Elongated Enclosures in Lincolnshire: An Analysis of the Air Photographic Evidence.’ Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society 64, 1998, pp83-114. Oblique monochrome print, Everson P, PLE TF1196/3, (1979)

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