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

Notgrove

Long Barrow

Miscellaneous

Excavation at Notgrove Long Barrow (from 1935 Archaeology Report)

Excavations were carried out this summer on Notgrove Long Barrow, in the parish of Notgrove, Gloucs, one of the well-known Cotswold group, by Mrs E M Clifford. The barrow stands at 800 feet O.D. and its orientation is roughly east and west.

The chamber is of double cruciform type and differs from the other three chambered barrows in England and Wales which have two pairs of side chambers in having a considerable area expanded as a kind of antechamber immeadiately west of the horned entrance. The chamber is formed with alternating Megalithic slabs (the tallest is six feet five inches above ground) and dry stone walling. The complete plan has been recovered, the sockets of the missing stones being found besides two hitherto unknown orthostats. The centre of the monument is occupied by a dome, which is a circular structure, twenty-three feet in diameter, formed of large stones faced with dry stone walling which was protected or supported by large slabs in which were the bones of a man.

The two revetment walls were traced from the portal around the horns to both sides of the mound and the inner one appeared to have extended the whole length of the barrow, while the outer one was less definite. Its line, however, was marked by a small sharply defined trench cut in the upper surface of a clay bed which everyone was laid outside the inner wall, and which was necessary on the north side to level up the ground. The whole of the material used is of local origin. The dome, the antechamber, and the horned entrance are the new structural features which these excavations have produced, while fragments of Windmill pottery, a bone bead and pieces of bone skewers were found in the chamber. The lower part of a Peterborough bowl with decoration of herring bone incisions and a gouge made out of a tooth were found in the material which blocked the entrance.
wysefool Posted by wysefool
29th April 2007ce

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