Details

The monument includes the buried remains of a Neolithic long barrow located
800m south west of Kirmond Top, on the eastern slopes of the Rase Valley.
Although the monument cannot be seen on the ground, the encircling ditch is
visible from the air as a cropmark (an area of enhanced crop growth caused by
higher moisture levels retained by the fills of underlying archaeological
features), and has been recorded on aerial photographs since 1976.
The trapezoidal ditch is orientated north west-south east and measures
approximately 30m long by a maximum of 15m wide overall. This infilled and
buried ditch is thought to be up to 5m in width, and its circuit is complete.
The absence of a causeway across the ditch suggests that the monument is an
example of the simpler form of Lincolnshire Wolds long barrow. These smaller
barrows do not show evidence for the construction of a large mound on
completion of the funerary rituals.

MAP EXTRACT
The site of the monument is shown on the attached map extract.
It includes a 5 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, generally with
flanking ditches. They acted as funerary monuments during the Early and Middle
Neolithic periods (3400-2400 BC), representing the burial places of Britain's
early farming communities, and as such are amongst the oldest field monuments
surviving 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 activities preceding the construction of the barrow mound,
including ditched enclosures containing structures related to various rituals
of burial. It is probable, therefore, that long barrows acted as important
spiritual sites for their local communities over considerable periods of time.
The long barrows of the Lincolnshire Wolds and their adjacent regions have
been identified as a distinct regional grouping of monuments in which the
flanking ditches are continued around the ends of the barrow mound, either
continuously or broken by a single causeway towards one end. More than 60
examples of this type of monument are known; a small number of these survive
as earthworks, but the great majority of sites are known as cropmarks and
soilmarks recorded on aerial photographs where no mound is evident at the
surface.
Not all Lincolnshire long barrows include mounds. Current limited
understanding of the processes of Neolithic mortuary ritual in Lincolnshire is
that the large barrow mound represents the final phase of construction which
was not reached by all mortuary monuments. Many of the sites where only the
ditched enclosure is known have been interpreted as representing monuments
which had fully evolved mounds, but in which the mound itself has been
degraded or removed by subsequent agricultural activity. In a minority of
cases, however, the ditched enclosure will represent a monument which never
developed a burial mound.
As a distinctive regional grouping of one of the few types of Neolithic
monuments known, these sites are of great value. They were all in use over a
great period of time and are thus highly representive of changing cultures of
the peoples who built and maintained them. All forms of long barrow on the
Lincolnshire Wolds and its adjacent regions are therefore considered to be of
national importance and all examples with significant surviving remains are
considered worthy of protection.

Although the long barrow 800m south west of Kirmond Top has been reduced by
ploughing, its buried remains survive beneath the present ground surface. The
fills of the defining ditch will retain rare and valuable archaeological
deposits relating to the date of the barrow's construction, its period of use
and the religious practices of its builders. The area within the ditch will
contain, as well as human remains, features such as pits and post holes
associated with funerary and ritual practices.
The monument is one of a number of long barrows associated with the
prehistoric trackway now formalised as High Street (B1225) which is situated
200m to the east. This association has significance for the study of
communications and settlement patterns during the prehistoric period.

Source: Historic England

Sources

Other
oblique monochrome prints, St Joseph J K, BZU 3-5, (1976)

Source: Historic England