Oval barrow

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An oval barrow is the name given by archaeologists to a type of prehistoric burial tumulus of roughly oval shape.

Tumulus Mound of earth and stones raised over graves

A tumulus is a mound of earth and stones raised over a grave or graves. Tumuli are also known as barrows, burial mounds or kurgans, and may be found throughout much of the world. A cairn, which is a mound of stones built for various purposes, may also originally have been a tumulus.

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In the British mid to late Neolithic and early Bronze Age, oval barrows may indicate a transition between earlier long barrows with multiple burials and the later, more individual round barrows. [ citation needed ]

The Neolithic, the final division of the Stone Age, began about 12,000 years ago when the first development of farming appeared in the Epipalaeolithic Near East, and later in other parts of the world. The division lasted until the transitional period of the Chalcolithic from about 6,500 years ago, marked by the development of metallurgy, leading up to the Bronze Age and Iron Age. In Northern Europe, the Neolithic lasted until about 1700 BC, while in China it extended until 1200 BC. Other parts of the world remained broadly in the Neolithic stage of development, although this term may not be used, until European contact.

Bronze Age Prehistoric period and age studied in archaeology, part of the Holocene Epoch

The Bronze Age is a historical period characterized by the use of bronze, and in some areas proto-writing, and other early features of urban civilization. The Bronze Age is the second principal period of the three-age Stone-Bronze-Iron system, as proposed in modern times by Christian Jürgensen Thomsen, for classifying and studying ancient societies.

Long barrow Type of dolmen

Long barrows, also known as chambered tombs, were a style of monument constructed across Western Europe in the fifth and fourth millennia BCE, during the Early Neolithic period. Typically constructed from earth and either timber or stone, those using the latter material represent the oldest widespread tradition of stone construction in the world.

Judging from those sited in or near the Thames Valley, there is much doubt as to how oval barrows are related to the burials found within them and funerary practices, because there can be a long gap of many years between an original burial and the construction of the barrow. [1]

Examples in England

Buckinghamshire [2]

Whiteleaf Hill

There is a neolithic oval barrow near the top of Whiteleaf Hill, Monks Risborough, Buckinghamshire (National Grid: SP 822040), which was first excavated by Sir Lindsay Scott between 1934 and 1939 and re-excavated from 2002 to 2006 by Oxford Archaeology (assisted by the Princes Risborough Countryside Group). The mound is roughly oval, but indented on the north-eastern side, making it somewhat kidney-shaped.

Neolithic Barrow on Whiteleaf Hill, Monks Risborough, Bucks Neolithic Barrow Whiteleaf Hill ed.jpg
Neolithic Barrow on Whiteleaf Hill, Monks Risborough, Bucks

The barrow held only one burial and radio-carbon dating has shown that the death, the burial and the building of the mound probably all took place within the period 3,750-3,100 B.C., but at different times within that period. The remains appeared to have been placed between two large vertical posts, 1.2 metres apart. Pottery shards and animal bones were found at the core of the mound and the excavators suggest that these came from ceremonial feasting when the mound was built. [3]

Dorney Reach

This is a mid-neolithic barrow dated to the approximate period 3300–2800 BC. Previously known only from a cropmark, magnetometry and resistivity surveys have produced more detailed information about this unexcavated site, which is on level ground on the flood plain of the River Thames at SU 9170 7935, 250 metres from the river. They reveal an oval ditch with external dimensions of about 20 by 12.5 metres. The axis lies NNE-SSW. Indications of two pits at the centre may represent a split-timber mortuary structure, as was found at Whiteleaf. [4]

Marsh Lane East (site 2)

It is believed that this was originally a neolithic oval barrow, but it was re-cut in the Bronze Age, so that little of the original barrow remains. [5]

Oxfordshire

Abingdon [6]

Kent


Yorkshire

Notes

  1. ↑ See Hey et al on Whiteleaf barrow and Lamdin-Whymark on that at Dorney Reach
  2. ↑ The three oval barrows in the Middle Thames Valley are discussed in Lamdin-Whymark (2008). See especially pp.165-7
  3. ↑ See Childe & Smith for the original excavation and Hey et al. for the 2007 report
  4. ↑ See Lamdin-Whymark (2009)
  5. ↑ Lamdin-Whymark & Maricevik (2008) p.166
  6. ↑ See Bradley

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