Subject Guides No.4 - Round Barrows

Submitted by vicky on Sunday, 29 February 2004 Page Views: 4232

Neolithic and Bronze AgeType: Round Barrow(s)

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**Boncyn Arian** submitted by PaulM : An iinteresting barrow on the shores of Llyn Brenig and part of the archaeological trail. (Vote or comment on this photo)

Round barrows or ‘tumuli’ as they are often called, are the most prolific prehistoric monuments in Britain. In the past they have essentially been classed into five types: bowl, bell, disc, saucer and pond, but within each of these broad categories there is some regional variation. Sizes generally range between 3 metres and 65 metres in diameter and between 0.3 metres to 6 metres in height, although many are now considerable larger and flatter due to the actions of ploughing.

By the early Bronze Age, the round barrow was the most notable type of funerary monument. Not everyone who died at this period was interred under or near a barrow, however, and apart from the occasional chance discoveries of cremation cemeteries, the final resting-place of the majority of the prehistoric population remains unknown. As with the chambered tombs of the Neolithic, although round barrows were primarily associated with the burial of the dead, they were also a symbol for the living and it is often their position within the landscape that makes them more intriguing. They are commonly found on the edge of areas which were under cultivation in the Late Neolithic/Early Bronze Age, between the lowlands and the uplands, and were thus constructed close to these boundaries where ‘the ancestors’ could watch over them in order to reinforce land ownership. In some cases they continued to be used for hundreds of years.

The material used during mound construction varies according to what was available locally and often barrows were not just constructed from one or two materials, but built up in an elaborate series of different coloured layers, reminding one of the glass ornaments containing multi-coloured sands from Alum Bay on the Isle of Wight. Some archaeologists, such as Anne Woodward (Tempus, 2000), believe that the colours used may have had some significance, for instance red representing flesh and blood, white light and bones and black, darkness and death.

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