Details

The monument includes a long barrow set on the crest of a steep south facing
slope within 2km of the south coast of the Isle of Wight. It survives as an
earthwork orientated east-west and appears pear-shaped in plan. The barrow
mound is 31m long, 9m wide and varies in height between 1m at the east end and
0.2m at the west. Two large sandstone blocks are set on the east end of the
mound. The upright stone is c.4m high and too large to have formed part of a
burial chamber while the recumbent stone is 3m long. Flanking the north side
of the barrow mound are the traces of a ditch from which material was quarried
during the construction of the monument. This survives to a width of c.3m and
is 0.2m deep. The ditch S of the mound is believed to survive as a buried
feature.
The site was partially excavated by J.Hawkes in 1956. Finds included a
sandstone kerb revetment on the north side of the mound as well as a flint
scraper and two sherds of pottery believed to be contemporary with the
monument.

MAP EXTRACT
The site of the monument is shown on the attached map extract.
It includes a 2 metre boundary around the archaeological features,
considered to be essential for the monument's support and preservation.

Source: Historic England

Reasons for Scheduling

Long barrows were constructed as earthen or drystone mounds with flanking
ditches and acted as funerary monuments during the Early and Middle Neolithic
periods (3400-2400 BC). They represent the burial places of Britain's early
farming communities and, as such, are amongst the oldest field monuments
surviving visibly in the present landscape. Where investigated, long barrows
appear to have been used for communal burial, often with only parts of the
human remains having been selected for interment. Certain sites provide
evidence for several phases of funerary monument preceding the barrow and,
consequently, it is probable that long barrows acted as important ritual sites
for local communities over a considerable period of time. Some 500 long
barrows are recorded in England. As one of the few types of Neolithic
structure to survive as earthworks, and due to their comparative rarity, their
considerable age and their longevity as a monument type, all long barrows are
considered to be nationally important.

The 180 long barrows of Hampshire, Wiltshire and Dorset form the densest and
one of the most significant concentrations of monuments of this type in the
country. Only three examples, however, are known on the Isle of Wight thus
making the Longstone an important monument for understanding the nature and
scale of Neolithic occupation on the island.

Source: Historic England

Sources

Books and journals
Hawkes, J, 'Antiquity' in The Longstone, Mottistone, , Vol. 31, (1957)

Source: Historic England