Details

The monument includes a round barrow situated on a gentle south facing slope
towards the northern edge of the Tabular Hills.
The barrow has an earthen mound which stands up to 0.3m high. Originally it
had a diameter of up to 30m, but ploughing has reduced this to about 18m. The
mound was surrounded by a ditch up to 2m wide, but over the years this has
become infilled as a result of ploughing and it is no longer visible as an
earthwork feature. The barrow was partly excavated by T Brewster in 1961-2
when four cremations were uncovered, two of them within urns.
The barrow lies within a dense concentration of prehistoric burial monuments
in an area which also includes the remains of prehistoric settlement and land
division.

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

Round barrows 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 mounds, sometimes ditched, which covered
single or multiple burials. They occur either in isolation or grouped as
cemeteries and often acted as a focus of 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 examples recorded nationally (many more have already
been destroyed), occurring across most of Britain, including the Wessex area
where it is often possible to classify them more closely, for example as bowl
or bell barrows. Often occupying prominent locations, they are a major
historic element in the modern landscape and their considerable variation in
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.

The Tabular Hills in the Wykeham Forest area contain a dense concentration of
prehistoric monuments, dating from the Neolithic to the Iron Age, which
includes field systems, enclosures and land boundaries as well as both round
and square barrows. The spatial and chronological relationships between the
round and square barrows in this area, and between both types of barrow and
other prehistoric monuments, are of considerable importance for understanding
the development of later prehistoric society in eastern Yorkshire.
Despite disturbance, this barrow has surviving archaeological deposits which
will contain information about the original form of the barrow and the burials
placed within it. Evidence for earlier land use and the contemporary
environment will also survive beneath the barrow mound and within the lower
ditch fills.
The round barrow immediately south of California Belt, 190m east of Fox Head
is one of a group of three burial monuments and such clusters provide
important insight into the development of ritual and funerary practice during
the Bronze Age.

Source: Historic England

Sources

Books and journals
Brewster, T C M, Finney, A E, Excavation of seven round barrows on the moorlands of N E Yorks, (1995), 4-5
Lee, G E, Wykeham Archaeological Survey, (1991)

Source: Historic England