> So is it just a status thing?

I don't think so. It's an distinctive architectural form that survived over a considerable period of time. Like all religious architecture, it's saying something about the relationship between humans and the gods/goddesses/God/Goddess/heaven/ancestors or whatever.

Even steeples, which are arguably status symbols, serve primarily as a symbol of the proximity between the church and God. In the context of this architectural form, the steeples kept getting bigger and bigger, to the point where they started falling down! This doesn't appear to be the case with long barrows. We don't see 1 mile long barrows.

;-)#

That's my take on it anyway.

K x