Monument record MLI42060 - Giants' Hills 2

Summary

One of a group of Neolithic long barrows to the north-west of Skendleby Lodge Farm, known as Giants' Hills.

Type and Period (3)

  • (Early Neolithic to Late Neolithic - 4000 BC to 2351 BC)
  • (Early Neolithic to Late Neolithic - 4000 BC to 2351 BC)
  • (Early Neolithic to Late Neolithic - 4000 BC to 2351 BC)

Protected Status/Designation

  • None recorded

Full Description

One of a group of Neolithic long barrows to the north-west of Skendleby Lodge Farm, known as Giants' Hills (this being Giants' Hills 2). Beaker pottery has been found at the site, which is partially destroyed. {1}{2} Continued damage by ploughing had led to the site being excavated by Evans and Simpson in 1975 and 1976. The remans of the mound were located by an initial geophysical survey, before excavation commenced. The earliest features dated to about 3500BC to 3000BC and consisted of a façade of posts and fencing, with a mortuary area 15m away. Around 3000BC some disarticulated human bone were placed between these features and the façade burnt down. The mound was subsequently built over this whole area. The mound consisted of earth and chalk rubble, with an internal arrangement of fences. The mounda material was derived from a quarry ditch which was continuous around the whole barrow. The land appears to have been intensively used in the later Neolithic period and tilled in the Beaker period. The land was rough grassland throughout most of the Bronze Age and Iron Age, and ploughing of the area appears to have begun in the Roman period. {3}{4}{5} This barrow can still be seen on aerial photographs as a slight extant mound, with cropmarks marking the position of the defining ditch, measuring 50m long by 22m wide. {6}{7} Giants' Hills 2 survives as a very slight ground swelling, sited in the middle of a south-facing valley slope, at 55m above OD. It measures 77m by 19m and is aligned south-east to north-west, with the long axis running parallel to the contours. The site was extensively excavated 1975-6 to reveal an enclsoure of trapeziform plan which had been extended at the distal (north-eastern) end. {8}{9} More recent analysis of the aerial photography for this area shows that, depsite ploughing and excavation in the 1970s, the long barrow can still be seen as cropmarks of both the barrow mound and the remains of the encircling ditch. The north-eastern side bears the cropmark traces of the excavation, however, with former excavation trenches visible as three perpendicular rectangular marks along the north-eastern side, cutting into the barrow mound and extending across the ditch region, although the ditch itself is not visble in this area. The visible remains of the barrow are aligned north-west to south-east, with the mound measuring roughly 73m by 21m, and the ditched enclosure around the mound being 91m by 28m. The north-western end appears to have a small ditched annexe. Surface terrain model data suggests there is still some earhtwork structure of the barrow mound surviving. {10}{11}

Sources/Archives (11)

  •  Index: SMR FILE. SKENDLEBY. TF 47 SW: L.
  •  Index: Ordnance Survey. Ordnance Survey Card Index. TF 47 SW: 9.
  •  Bibliographic Reference: Nikolaus Pevsner and John Harris, with Nicholas Antram. 1989. Buildings of England: Lincolnshire (Second Edition). p.647.
  •  Article in Monograph: J.G. Evans and D.D.A. Simpson. 1986. Radiocarbon Dates for the Giants' Hills 2 Long Barrow, Skendleby, Lincolnshire. -.
  •  Article in Serial: J.G. Evans and D.D.A. Simpson. 1991. 'Giants' Hills 2 Long Barrow, Skendleby, Lincolnshire' in Archaeologia. vol.109, pp.1-45.
  •  Aerial Photograph: 1946-98. RCHME. 2401/26-7 (1986).
  •  Map: Royal Commission on the Historical Monuments of England. 1992-1996. Lincolnshire National Mapping Programme. TF4270: LI.109.8.2.
  •  Article in Serial: Dilwyn Jones. 1998. 'Long Barrows and Neolithic Elongated Enclosures in Lincolnshire: An Analysis of the Air Photographic Evidence' in Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society. vol.64, pp.83-114, fig.7, no.3.
  •  Index: Dilwyn Jones. 1998. Gazetteer of Neolithic Elongated Enclosures and Extant Long Barrows in (Historic) Lincolnshire. no.3.
  •  Aerial Photograph: Aerial Photograph. NMR TF 4270/21-22 (17822/19-20) (20/06/2003).
  •  Aerial Photograph: Aerial Photograph. NMR 28039_11 (22/07/2010).

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Location

Grid reference Centred TF 4294 7088 (64m by 69m) Estimated from Sources
Civil Parish SKENDLEBY, EAST LINDSEY, LINCOLNSHIRE

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Related Events/Activities (2)

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Record last edited

Feb 7 2025 9:16AM

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