The Modern Antiquarian. Stone Circles, Ancient Sites, Neolithic Monuments, Ancient Monuments, Prehistoric Sites, Megalithic MysteriesThe Modern Antiquarian

Hanging Grimston

Barrow / Cairn Cemetery

Miscellaneous

This group of monuments consists of a long barrow, a line of later round barrows, some earthworks and a Roman road. The long barrow is aligned east-west and was excavated in the 1868 by JR Mortimer who recorded a burned wooden mortuary house and traces of a timber crescent façade at the eastern end. Burials included pig jaws without the tusks, bowls and a human leg bone. The remains have since been dated to about 3450BC. Estimates of the original size of the barrow are around 24 metres long by 15 metres wide with 8 metre wide side ditches. Later the barrow became part of a linear earthwork now known as Queen Dyke, thought to date from the middle bronze age.
The round barrows follow the line of what could be an ancient trackway over Hanging Grimston Wold that later became a Roman Road. Many of them are ploughed out but some were excavated and recorded by Mortimer who found beakers, remains of a funeral pyre, oak coffins, collared urns and jet buttons. The most interesting barrow at SE806613 was found to contain a limestone ring of six stones with the remains of 11 burials inside.

Info source – Dyer, Hawkes, English Heritage
Chris Collyer Posted by Chris Collyer
9th February 2003ce

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