Long barrow or mortuary enclosure and round barrow north of Beck Plantation

Summary

Buried remains of a long barrow or mortuary enclosure and a double ditched round barrow.

Reasons for Designation

The long barrow or mortuary enclosure and round barrow north of Beck Plantation are scheduled for the following principal reasons:

* Survival: the Neolithic long barrow and later round barrow are visible as clearly defined cropmarks on aerial photography, and the survival of the round barrow has been confirmed by geophysical survey;

* Potential: for the buried 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, the long barrow is highly representative of the period;

* Rarity: the long barow is 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;

* Diversity: for the presence of a double-ditched round barrow, likely constructed in the Late Neolithic to the Late Bronze Age, indicating the continued attribution of significance to the older monument by later communities;

* Group value: for the close proximity of this group of barrows to other contemporary or spatially-related scheduled monuments, in particular a scheduled settlement and enclosure at Holdingham (NHLE 1004940).

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 on 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 in the Cotswolds, 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.

Round barrows 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. Often occupying prominent locations, they are a major historic 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 occur either in isolation or grouped as cemeteries and often acted as a focus for burials in later periods.

The long barrow or mortuary enclosure north of Beck Plantation was mapped as a long barrow by the National Mapping Programme (NMP) and was included in D Jones' long barrow and enclosure analysis published in 1998. A Bronze Age round barrow to the south of the long barrow is also evident on aerial photographs (APs). A geophysical survey (magnetometry and resistivity) carried out as part of the Lincolnshire Long Barrows project (2018) confirmed the survival of the below ground remains of the long barrow and of the double ring ditch associated with the round barrow to the south.

Details

Buried remains of a long barrow or mortuary enclosure and a double ditched round barrow north of Beck Plantation.

PRINCIPAL ELEMENTS: the buried remains of a Neolithic long barrow aligned north-north-east to south-south-west with its long axis traversing the contours. The round barrow lies 48m to the south. The barrows are located to the immediate south of a field boundary on a gentle slope leading down to the Beck which feeds the River Slea at a height of 21m AOD, approximately 180m to the north of Beck Plantation.

DESCRIPTION: the long barrow or mortuary enclosure is visible as cropmarks on aerial photographs centred at TF 0361 4485. It is almost rectangular on plan, with rounded corners, aligned north-north-east to south-south-west and has maximum dimensions measuring 52.5m by 31.5m. Geophysical survey confirmed the presence of a round barrow approximately 48m to the south; it is double ditched with several internal features, possibly burials.

Valuable archaeological deposits will be preserved on the buried ground surface and in the fills of the ditches. These will provide rare information concerning the dating and construction of the monuments 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 monuments were set.

The long barrow or mortuary enclosure and round barrow are situated within a wider landscape of Bronze Age round barrows, later prehistoric pit alignments, an Iron Age trackway and later, post-medieval field boundaries. Only the long barrow and double-ditched round barrow have been considered as part of this assessment but the spatial relationship between these features demonstrates the continuing ritual and agricultural significance of the landscape and has wider implications for the study of demography and settlement patterns from the Neolithic period into the Bronze Age.

EXTENT OF SCHEDULING: The scheduled area is marked on the attached map and includes a 5m buffer zone around the long barrow and round barrow, which is considered necessary for the support and preservation of the monument. There are no exclusions from the scheduling.

Sources

Books and journals
Last, J, Beyond the Grave, New Perspectives on Barrows (2007),
Field, D, Earthen Long Barrows, The Earliest Monuments in the British Isles (2006),
Woodward, A, British Barrows A Matter of Life and Death (2000),
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

Other
Heritage Lincolnshire, ‘Lincolnshire Long Barrows Assessment Project (No.7400), Geophysical Survey Report on land north of Beck Plantation, South Rauceby, Lincolnshire AMIE 1606947’ (December 2018)

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