St Mary's is the largest and most populous island of the Isles of Scilly, an archipelago off the southwest coast of Cornwall in England, United Kingdom.
A megalith is a large stone that has been used to construct a prehistoric structure or monument, either alone or together with other stones. There are over 35,000 in Europe alone, located widely from Sweden to the Mediterranean sea.
A gallery grave is a form of megalithic tomb built primarily during the Neolithic Age in Europe in which the main gallery of the tomb is entered without first passing through an antechamber or hallway. There are at least four major types of gallery grave, and they may be covered with an earthen mound or rock mound.
Entrance grave is a type of Neolithic and early Bronze Age chamber tomb found primarily in Great Britain. The burial monument typically consisted of a circular mound bordered by a stone curb, erected over a rectangular burial chamber and accessed by a narrow, stone lined entrance. Entrance graves have been discovered in the Isles of Scilly, west Cornwall, southeast Ireland, southwest Scotland, Brittany and the Channel Islands. They are often referred to as the Scillonian Group, named for the Scillonian Islands where the majority of entrance graves have been discovered.
Bant's Carn is a Bronze Age entrance grave located on a steep slope on the island of St Mary's in the Isles of Scilly, England. The tomb is one of the best examples of a Scillonian entrance grave. Below Bant's Carn, lies the remains of the Iron Age village of Halangy Down.
This article describes several characteristic architectural elements typical of European megalithic structures.
The dolmens of Jersey are neolithic sites, including dolmens, in Jersey. They range over a wide period, from around 4800 BC to 2250 BC, these dates covering the periods roughly designated as Neolithic, or “new stone age”, to Chalcolithic, or “copper age”.
St Helen's is one of the fifty or so uninhabited islands in the archipelago of the Isles of Scilly and has an approximate area of 0.1885 square kilometres. On the south side of the island is one of the earliest Christian sites in Scilly, an early medieval religious complex, which is thought to be the remains of St Elidius Hermitage, an 8th-century chapel lived in by Saint Lide,. There are also the remains of an isolation hospital used to quarantine sailors with plague. The island is the major part of a Site of Special Scientific Interest and some features have been given the designation of scheduled ancient monument. Access to the island is through chartered or private boat, although there are some season trips throughout the summer. St Helen's is currently managed by the Isles of Scilly Wildlife Trust.
Paul Ashbee was a leading British archaeologist, noted for his many excavations of barrows, or burial mounds, and for co-directing the Sutton Hoo digs from 1964 to 1972. He was also president of the Just William Society. He died of cancer on 19 August 2009, aged 91.
Obadiah's Barrow or Obadiah's Grave is a Neolithic entrance grave located on the island of Gugh in the Isles of Scilly. The grave sits on a steep slope on the southwestern side of Kittern Hill, the highest point on Gugh. The grave was excavated in 1901 by British archaeologist, George Bonsor.
The Goldbusch is a great dolmen, a type prehistoric grave site, that lies between Altensien and Moritzdorf on the German Baltic Sea island of Rügen. The megalithic tomb with Sprockhoff No. 508 was built between 3500 and 2800 B. C. in the New Stone Age as a megalithic site of the Funnelbeaker culture (TBK).
Brane Barrow, or Chapel Euny Barrow, is a Neolithic entrance grave located near the hamlet of Brane, Cornwall, England, UK. It is considered to be one of the smallest and best preserved burial monuments in Britain.
Innisidgen is the site of two Bronze Age entrance graves on the island of St Mary's in the Isles of Scilly. The two burial monuments, lie on a steep slope of Innisidgen Hill overlooking Crow Sound with a view towards the Eastern Isles.
The Grey Mare and her Colts is a megalithic chambered long barrow located near Abbotsbury in Dorset, England. It was built during the Early and Middle Neolithic periods. The tomb was partially excavated in the early nineteenth century, and was found to contain human bones and several pottery fragments.
British megalith architecture is the study of those ancient cultures that built megalithic sites on the British Isles, including the research and documentation of these sites. The classification sometimes used of these cultures based on geological criteria is problematic.
Pawton Quoit is a prehistoric portal dolmen, which dates to the Early and Middle Neolithic period in England. The burial monument is located near Haycrock Farm, south of St Breock, in Cornwall, England.
This is a list of scheduled monuments in Cornwall, United Kingdom. Monuments are listed by Historic England as part of the National Heritage List for England. For the scope of this list, the Isles of Sicily are included and the ceremonial county boundaries are used.
Lesquite Quoit, is a portal dolmen, located near Lanivet in Cornwall, United Kingdom. It is a ceremonial funerary monument built around 3500 - 2600 BC and used by Britain's early farming communities. There are only 20 portal dolmens surviving in the United Kingdom. Many have suffered from stone-robbing and degradation over time. This example is well preserved, and is a scheduled monument. In 1870, J. Polsue recorded that the local tradition was of the stones "having been thrown to their present location from Helman Tor by the Devil playing quoits."
Halangy Down is a prehistoric settlement located on the island of St Mary's, in the Isles of Scilly. The ancient site covers the lower slope of Halangy Down hill, overlooking the coastal inlet between the island of St. Mary's and Tresco Island. On the site are the remains of an Iron Age village, two entrance graves, prehistoric field systems, standing stones, post-medieval breastworks, and a Victorian kelp pit. The settlement was in continuous use for 500 years, from the late Iron Age until the end of the Roman occupation in Britain.
Quanterness chambered cairn is a Neolithic burial monument located on Mainland, Orkney in Scotland. An Iron Age roundhouse built into the cairn was discovered during excavation in the early 1970s. The dwelling was constructed around 700 BC. Also found during excavation, were the remains of 157 people, pottery remnants and other artefacts. Historic Environment Scotland established the site as a scheduled monument in 1929.
