Details

The monument includes two adjacent bowl barrows, located on the edge of Wooing
Nab, which are among a number of barrows situated on the crest of Acklam Wold.
Although both have been altered by agricultural activity and are no longer
identifiable as earthworks, the buried quarry ditch surrounding each barrow
mound is visible on aerial photographs. The ditch of the western barrow has
an outside diameter of 19m while the eastern one has a diameter of only 11m.
The barrows were investigated in the 19th century by both the York Antiquarian
Club and by J R Mortimer. Mortimer noted that the eastern barrow was also
examined by an Ordnance Survey team stationed on the Wold during the winter
of 1841-2. Early editions of the OS maps show both barrows as mounds 8m in
diameter. Excavation on a number of sites in the Yorkshire Wolds has
confirmed that barrows in this area have burial pits, up to 2m deep, dug into
the ground beneath them. At this site remains of such pits will survive,
despite the levelling of the mounds.

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

Bowl barrows, the most numerous form of round barrow, are funerary monuments
dating from the Late Neolithic period to the Late Bronze Age, with most
examples belonging to the period 2400-1500 BC. They were constructed as
earthen or rubble mounds, sometimes ditched, which covered single or multiple
burials. They occur either in isolation or grouped as cemeteries and often
acted as a focus for burials in later periods. Often superficially similar,
although differing widely in size, they exhibit regional variations in form
and a diversity of burial practices. There are over 10,000 surviving bowl
barrows recorded nationally (many more have already been destroyed), occurring
across most of lowland Britain. Often occupying prominent locations, they are
a major historic element in the modern landscape and their considerable
variation of form and longevity as a monument type provide important
information on the diversity of beliefs and social organisations amongst early
prehistoric communities. They are particularly representative of their period
and a substantial proportion of surviving examples are considered worthy of
protection.

Although both barrows have been partially altered by agricultural activity and
are no longer visible as earthworks, the encircling quarry ditches and further
evidence of deep burial pits will survive below ground. The barrows were also
comparatively well-documented during campaigns of fieldwork in the 19th
century.
The monument is one of a closely associated group of barrows which have
further associations with broadly contemporary boundary earthworks in the
vicinity of Acklam Wold. Similar groups of monuments are also known from
other parts of the Wolds and from the southern edge of the North York Moors.
Such associations between monuments offer important scope for the study of the
division of land for social, ritual and agricultural purposes in different
geographical areas during the prehistoric period.

Source: Historic England

Sources

Books and journals
Mortimer, J R , Forty Years Researches in British and Saxon Burial Mounds of East Yorkshire, (1905), 89
Mortimer, J R , Forty Years Researches in British and Saxon Burial Mounds of East Yorkshire, (1905), 92
Other
6" and 25" Series,
Stoertz, K, (1992)

Source: Historic England