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

Stoughton Down

Long Barrow

Miscellaneous

The two long barrows here are really 'oval barrows' - funerary monuments from the Early to Middle Neolithic, and so especially ancient and unusual. They are only 1-2m high now, and in the 1920s it was still possible to see something of the 3m wide ditches that followed their lengths. The scheduled monument record on MaGIc describes these ditches as 'banana shaped' - they did not join to encircle the mounds, but were in pairs bent in slightly at both ends. Apparently it is even more unusual that two oval barrows should be found together - underlining the importance of this place/landscape in prehistoric times, especially when you consider the number of other barrows from later periods to be found up here. Rhiannon Posted by Rhiannon
28th April 2005ce
Edited 28th April 2005ce

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