Silbaby forum 17 room
Image by jimit
close
more_vert

Well - there seems to be long barrows and round barrows, and many distinctions within the two. The name barrow really just relates to the implement that helped make them, although perhaps the barrows were tiny (and actually baskets). Any monument from prehistory could have been attributed to the druids, although we might now call them shamanic priests. Pete has discovered an overlooked monument in a very well known landscape, which just goes to show how many there might be in less known landscapes, such as the heather uplands, which have effectively been closed for a couple of centuries, by the game shooters!

"Pete has discovered an overlooked monument in a very well known landscape, which just goes to show how many there might be in less known landscapes, such as the heather uplands, which have effectively been closed for a couple of centuries, by the game shooters!"

Well exactly. If he HAS done so it has huge implications not just for the fact of discovering it but for what MUST be out there to be found in less well-examined places - which is everywhere!

StoneGloves wrote:
Well - there seems to be long barrows and round barrows, and many distinctions within the two. The name barrow really just relates to the implement that helped make them, although perhaps the barrows were tiny (and actually baskets). Any monument from prehistory could have been attributed to the druids, although we might now call them shamanic priests. Pete has discovered an overlooked monument in a very well known landscape, which just goes to show how many there might be in less known landscapes, such as the heather uplands, which have effectively been closed for a couple of centuries, by the game shooters!
The OS archaeology division did some sterling work but there are many examples that I can think of which were originally put down as moraine /natural which are now accepted as barrows .

StoneGloves wrote:
The name barrow really just relates to the implement that helped make them, although perhaps the barrows were tiny (and actually baskets).
A bit off topic but Tim Darvill states in one of his books that the late and great Leslie Grinsell suggested the word barrow is derived from the Anglo-Saxon word 'beorh' refering to ancient burial places of that time, and also of the word 'hlaew' which was used for contemporary burial mounds of the same period.
Is this considered the correct point of view or are there any other opinions on where this word comes from?

:o)

C.