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<< Our Photo Pages >> Bampfylde Hill Barrows - Barrow Cemetery in England in Devon

Submitted by AngieLake on Saturday, 03 October 2009  Page Views: 15166

Neolithic and Bronze AgeSite Name: Bampfylde Hill Barrows Alternative Name: Bampfylde Mine Barrow, Heasley Mill Barrows, North
Country: England County: Devon Type: Barrow Cemetery
Nearest Town: South Molton  Nearest Village: Heasley Mill
Map Ref: SS726319
Latitude: 51.072246N  Longitude: 3.819814W
Condition:
5Perfect
4Almost Perfect
3Reasonable but with some damage
2Ruined but still recognisable as an ancient site
1Pretty much destroyed, possibly visible as crop marks
0No data.
-1Completely destroyed
no data Ambience:
5Superb
4Good
3Ordinary
2Not Good
1Awful
0No data.
no data Access:
5Can be driven to, probably with disabled access
4Short walk on a footpath
3Requiring a bit more of a walk
2A long walk
1In the middle of nowhere, a nightmare to find
0No data.
no data Accuracy:
5co-ordinates taken by GPS or official recorded co-ordinates
4co-ordinates scaled from a detailed map
3co-ordinates scaled from a bad map
2co-ordinates of the nearest village
1co-ordinates of the nearest town
0no data
4
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Bampfylde Hill Barrows
Bampfylde Hill Barrows submitted by AngieLake : As the previous pic, this was taken as an aide memoire before hopefully finding a better-quality image. Searching online has so far drawn a blank. It is a fascinating story though. (Vote or comment on this photo)
Barrow Cemetery in Devon. Angie Lake writes: On a visit to South Molton Museum on 26th September 2009, I was intrigued by a report describing the finding of a very unusual and important necklace, with links to the Prince Grave at the Hill of Tara in Ireland, and later named 'The North Molton Necklace'.

I took digi photos of the text and two pictures in the report, and copied them out later.
See here:

Copy of text from file in South Molton Museum

"This necklace was amongst a number of interesting and important finds from an inconspicuous mound forty eight feet in diameter and just three feet in height. This mound, considered to be a barrow, stands in a field that was being worked in 1889, by a tenant farmer, Mr Charles Bird, of Heasley Mill. Whilst he was ploughing his old white horse ‘Darling’ put his foot in a hole as the ground gave way. According to a succeeding tenant, Mr Charles Passmore of North Molton, the hole that the horse had made held archaeological items including bones, potsherds, flints and some beads. No proper archaeological excavation was ever made, and only the beads remain, and are now in the care of the Royal Albert Memorial Museum in Exeter.

The beads, thought to be eighteen in number, were made of faience, an early form of glasswork, lignite, a substance transitional between peat and coal, and amber. Some of the beads have a biconical structure whilst others have a segmented design indicating an Egyptian origin.

The beads are thought to date to approximately 1350 BC. The biconical form, at this time unrecognized in Europe, contrasted with the segmented form, the first of its type recorded in Devon. The lignite beads are biconical except for one of oblate form. A single amber bead also of oblate form is a clear transparent red.

The faience is suggestive of trading contacts with the eastern Mediterranean whilst the amber would have been sourced from northern Europe. The lignite could have been local to Devon. The necklace is almost identical to the famous specimen found in a barrow context during an excavation at the Mound of Hostages at Tara, a site related to the ancient kings of Ireland.

[The author of the paper for the museum would like us to point out that some of the ideas in the paper are speculative - MegP Ed]

Angie continues: I also found the following:

The North Molton Necklace is an artefact of great importance to the area as it suggests a connection between a high status burial and cultural influences from as far as Bronze Age Egypt. Similar necklaces have been found at other locations such as at Upton Lovell in Wiltshire and as far north as Scotland but they are always found at what are thought to be important locations. This necklace is made up of blue faience beads from Egypt, amber from northern Europe and black shale. The only other known necklace of this particular combination of stones was found inside the Prince Grave on the Hill of Tara in Ireland, which is thought to have been a coronation site in prehistoric times. The necklace was found during the excavation of a burial mound near to Bampfylde Mine. This mine was at the centre of a network of copper mines that were so rich in ore that they were able to control the world price of copper in the 19th century.

Bampfylde Mine is also the oldest mine in the area to be referred to in historical records which date back to Elizabethan times. Recent excavations by Exeter University at Sherracombe have also shown that the area was used for the industrial scale production of metals during the Roman period. The Romans were perfectly able of prospecting for metal deposits but would not have been slow to exploit any existing areas where mining for metal was already established by the native British population."

Lady Aileen Fox and J F S Stone wrote a report about the necklace, titled: 'A Necklace From A Barrow in North Molton Parish,

Through that link I found this page which seems to relate to the barrow in question.

According to the OS map for the area, the tumuli are shown at the northwest side of Bampfylde Hill approx 260m above sea level. I wonder if there was any significance in burying those persons with an aspect to Summer Solstice sunset? - or, (if there WAS a link to Tara) - facing back to the site of the ancient kings of Ireland?

It is mentioned on this website:

"In 1955, archaeologist Dr. Sean O’Riordan of Trinity College, Dublin, made an interesting discovery during an excavation of the Mound of Hostages at Tara, site of ancient kingship of Ireland. Bronze Age skeletal remains were found of what has been argued to be a young prince, still wearing a rare necklace of faience beads, made from a paste of minerals and plant extracts that had been fired.

The skeleton was carbon dated to around 1350 BC. In 1956, J. F. Stone and L. C. Thomas reported that the faience beads were Egyptian: “In fact, when they were compared with Egyptian faience beads, they were found to be not only of identical manufacture but also of matching design.

The famous boy-king Tutankhamun was entombed around the same time as the Tara skeleton and the priceless golden collar around his mummy’s neck was inlayed with matching conical, blue-green faience beads”. An almost identical necklace was found in a Bronze Age burial mound at north Molton, Devon."

I shall make some enquiries next time I'm in Exeter, but the museum there is closed until 2011 for refurbishment.
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Bampfylde Hill Barrows
Bampfylde Hill Barrows submitted by AngieLake : Similar necklaces have been found at Upton Lovell.. [see text on site page]. This copy taken from Chalkland, by Andrew J Lawson, p.216, Fig.7.16. (Vote or comment on this photo)

Bampfylde Hill Barrows
Bampfylde Hill Barrows submitted by AngieLake : Apologies for the quality of this photo, but it was snapped on my digi camera from a laminated file in South Molton museum, mostly as an aide memoire, thinking I'd find something online.. This wasn't to be! (Vote or comment on this photo)

Do not use the above information on other web sites or publications without permission of the contributor.

Nearby Images from Geograph Britain and Ireland:
SS7231 : Rews Cross by Roger Cornfoot
by Roger Cornfoot
©2016(licence)
SS7232 : Grassy slopes next to Rews Cross, looking towards Heasly Mill by David Gearing
by David Gearing
©2014(licence)
SS7232 : Looking towards Down's Barn by Roger Cornfoot
by Roger Cornfoot
©2016(licence)
SS7232 : North Molton: towards Great Heasley by Martin Bodman
by Martin Bodman
©2007(licence)
SS7231 : North Molton: Bampfylde Clump by Martin Bodman
by Martin Bodman
©2007(licence)

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"Bampfylde Hill Barrows" | Login/Create an Account | 3 News and Comments
  
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Re:faience beads by drolaf on Saturday, 06 April 2019
(User Info | Send a Message)
there's an interesting article about faience beads found/made in Britain in Bronze-Iron age


http://www.archhighland.org.uk/news.asp?newsid=58
[ Reply to This ]

Re: Bampfylde Hill Barrows by Anonymous on Saturday, 03 October 2009
Thanks for posting your findings - an interesting connection. I suspect that we all have a stronger connection with the Hill of Tara than we imagine
[ Reply to This ]
    Re: Bampfylde Hill Barrows by AngieLake on Saturday, 03 October 2009
    (User Info | Send a Message)
    Thanks 'Anonymous', but I only reported what I'd found in South Molton Museum and subsequently, online.
    I have discovered since that a gentleman called Mark Farry was responsible for writing the paper about the barrow and the necklace, which I'd copied at the museum.
    It would be great if there was a connection to the Hill of Tara, though.
    (I've been there and it is an intriguing site.)
    [ Reply to This ]

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