123-426: Chestnuts Long Barrow , also known as Stony Warren or Long Warren , is a chambered long barrow near the village of Addington in the south-eastern English county of Kent . Probably constructed in the fifth millennium BC , during Britain's Early Neolithic period , today it survives only in a ruined state . Archaeologists have established that long barrows were built by pastoralist communities shortly after
246-446: A Breton word meaning "table-stone"; this is typically used in reference to the stone chambers found in some, although not all, long barrows. The historian Ronald Hutton suggested that such sites could also be termed "tomb-shrines" to reflect the fact that they appear to have often been used both to house the remains of the dead and to have been used in ritual activities. Some contain no burials while others have been found to contain
369-647: A beaker alongside the body. However, even though customs changed, barrows and burial mounds continued to be used during the Bronze Age, with smaller tombs often dug into the primary mounds. There has been debate amongst archaeologists as to whether the "Beaker people" were a race of people that migrated to Britain en masse from the continent or whether a Beaker cultural "package" of goods and behaviour, which eventually spread across most of Western Europe, diffused to Britain's existing inhabitants through trade across tribal boundaries. However one recent study (2017) suggests
492-575: A 1946 paper published in the Folklore journal , John H. Evans recorded a Kentish folk belief which had been widespread "up to the last generation". This held that it was impossible to successfully count the number of stones in the Medway Megaliths. The countless stones motif is not unique to Kent, having been recorded at other megalithic monuments in Britain and Ireland. The earliest textual evidence for it
615-473: A chamber built from sarsen megaliths on its eastern end. Both inhumed and cremated human remains were placed within this chamber during the Neolithic period, representing at least nine or ten individuals. These remains were found alongside pottery sherds , stone arrow heads, and a clay pendant. In the 4th century AD , a Romano-British hut was erected next to the long barrow. In the 12th or 13th century,
738-579: A form of tomb. In the latter nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, archaeologists like V. Gordon Childe held to the cultural diffusionist view that such Western European monuments had been based on tombs originally produced in parts of the eastern Mediterranean region, suggesting that their ultimate origin was either in Egypt or in Crete. In this view, the tradition was seen as having spread westward as part of some form of "megalithic religion". A seminal study of
861-521: A major genetic shift in late Neolithic/early Bronze Age Britain and up to 90% of Britain's Neolithic gene pool may have been replaced with the coming of a people genetically similar to the Beaker people of the Lower Rhine region (modern Netherlands/central-western Germany), which had a high proportion of steppe ancestry . According to the evolutionary geneticist Ian Barnes , "Following the Beaker spread, there
984-477: A migration) into Southern Great Britain around the 12th century BC. The disruption was felt far beyond Britain, even beyond Europe, as most of the great Near Eastern empires collapsed (or experienced severe difficulties), and the Sea Peoples harried the entire Mediterranean basin around that time. Cremation was adopted as a burial practice, with cemeteries of urns containing cremated individuals appearing in
1107-712: A natural feature. Damage sustained by Neolithic long barrows can also lead to them being mistaken for other types of monuments, such as the oval barrows and round barrows which are usually of later date. Aerial photography has proven useful in identifying many more examples that are barely visible on the ground. Geophysical surveys have been found to be helpful to explore sites that are unavailable for excavation. Long barrows such as West Kennet Long Barrow in Wiltshire have become tourist attractions. At Wayland's Smithy in Oxfordshire, visitors have lodged coins into cracks in
1230-602: A new pottery style arrived in Great Britain: the Bell Beaker culture . Beaker pottery appears in the Mount Pleasant Phase (2700–2000 BC), along with flat axes and the burial practice of inhumation . People of this period were responsible for building Seahenge , along with the later phases of Stonehenge . Silbury Hill was also built in the early Beaker period. Movement of continental Europeans brought new people to
1353-432: A new way of looking at the land. In this interpretation, the long barrows served as territorial markers, dividing up the land, signifying that it was occupied and controlled by a particular community, and thus warning away rival groups. In defending this interpretation, Malone noted that each "tomb-territory" typically had access to a range of soils and landscape types in its vicinity, suggesting that it could have represented
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#17328584415761476-540: A nomadic herding society. Instead it has been suggested that they represent markers along herding pathways. The archaeologist Richard Bradley suggested that the construction of these monuments reflects an attempt to mark control and ownership over the land, thus reflecting a change in mindset brought about by the transition from the hunter-gatherer Mesolithic to the pastoralist Early Neolithic. Others have suggested that these monuments were built on sites already deemed sacred by Mesolithic hunter-gatherers. During excavation of
1599-612: A quarry 30 metres (100 feet) to the east. In the latter part of the 1950s, with plans afoot to build a house adjacent to Chestnuts Long Barrow, the Inspectorate of Ancient Monuments initiated an excavation of the site under the directorship of John Alexander. The excavation, which lasted five weeks in August and September 1957, was funded by Boyle, with the support of the Inspectorate, and largely carried out by volunteers. Following excavation,
1722-477: A regional manifestation of a tradition widespread across Early Neolithic Europe. He nevertheless stressed that a precise place of origin was "impossible to indicate" with the available evidence. Archaeological excavation revealed a Mesolithic layer below the monument, evidenced by much debris produced by flint knapping . During the 1957 excavation of the site, 2,300 Mesolithic flint fragments were found beneath it. Many more have been discovered in test trenches around
1845-510: A small loop or ring to make lashing the two together easier. Groups of unused axes are often found together, suggesting ritual deposits to some, but many archaeologists believe that elite groups collected bronze items and perhaps restricted their use among the wider population. Bronze swords of a graceful "leaf" shape, swelling gently from the handle before coming to a tip, have been found in considerable numbers, along with spear heads and arrow points. Great Britain had large reserves of tin in what
1968-460: A social function for the communities who built and used them". Thus, it has been suggested that Early Neolithic people entered into the tombs—which doubled as temples or shrines —to perform rituals honouring the dead and requesting their assistance. For this reason, the historian Ronald Hutton termed these monuments "tomb-shrines" to reflect their dual purpose. In Britain, these tombs were typically located on prominent hills and slopes overlooking
2091-508: A sort of living entity. The winter solstice has been a particularly popular occasion for Pagans to visit. Bronze Age Britain Bronze Age Britain is an era of British history that spanned from c. 2500–2000 BC until c. 800 BC . Lasting for approximately 1,700 years, it was preceded by the era of Neolithic Britain and was in turn followed by the period of Iron Age Britain . Being categorised as
2214-482: A special commissioner, highlighting that the "expertness and thoroughness of the robbery" would have required more resources than a local community could muster. He further suggested that the individuals who damaged the monument might have also been responsible for the damage at Kit's Coty House, Coldrum Long Barrow, and Addington Long Barrow, while Ashbee suggested that the same could also be the case for Lower Kit's Coty House. Rather than robbery, Ashbee thought iconoclasm
2337-513: A stone chamber at the eastern end of the mound, and they each probably had a stone facade flanking the entrance. They had internal heights of up to 3.0 metres (10 feet), making them taller than most other chambered long barrows in Britain. The chambers were constructed from sarsen , a dense, hard, and durable stone that occurs naturally throughout Kent, having formed out of sand from the Eocene epoch. Early Neolithic builders would have selected blocks from
2460-467: A style of monument constructed across Western Europe in the fifth and fourth millennia BCE, during the Early Neolithic period. Typically constructed from earth and either timber or stone, those using the latter material represent the oldest widespread tradition of stone construction in the world. Around 40,000 long barrows survive today. The structures have a long earthen tumulus , or "barrow", that
2583-473: A time "when elaborate ceremonial practices emerged among some communities of subsistence agriculturalists of western Europe". There is no clear consensus on the date for the beginning of the Bronze Age in Great Britain and Ireland. Some sources give a date as late as 2000 BC, and others set 2200 BC as the demarcation between the Neolithic and the Bronze Age. The period from 2500 BC to 2000 BC has been called
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#17328584415762706-464: A viable territorial area for a particular community. Also supporting this interpretation is the fact that the distribution of chambered long barrows on some Scottish islands shows patterns that closely mirror modern land divisions between farms and crofts. This interpretation also draws ethnographic parallels from recorded communities around the world, who have also used monuments to demarcate territory. This idea became popular among archaeologists in
2829-468: A woodland of oak, ash, hazel/alder and Amygdaloideae (stone-fruit trees). Throughout most of Britain, there is little evidence of cereal or permanent dwellings from this period, leading archaeologists to believe that the island's Early Neolithic economy was largely pastoral , relying on herding cattle, with people living a nomadic or semi-nomadic life. Across Western Europe, the Early Neolithic marked
2952-446: Is flanked on two sides with linear ditches. These typically stretch for between 20 and 70 metres in length, although some exceptional examples are either longer or shorter than this. Some examples have a timber or stone chamber in one end of the tumulus. These monuments often contained human remains interred within their chambers, and as a result, are often interpreted as tombs , although there are some examples where this appears not to be
3075-698: Is in an early 16th-century document, where it applies to Stonehenge in Wiltshire , although an early 17th-century document also applied it to The Hurlers , a set of three stone circles in Cornwall . Later records reveal that the folk story had gained widespread distribution in England and single occurrences in both Wales and Ireland. The folklorist S. P. Menefee suggested that it could be attributed to an animistic understanding that these megaliths had lives of their own. Antiquarians have been aware of Chestnuts Long Barrow since
3198-465: Is in the greensand belt, 30 metres (100 feet) above sea level . The underlying geology is a soft sandstone covered with a stratum of white sand. The Early Neolithic was a revolutionary period of British history. Between 4500 and 3800 BC, it saw a widespread change in lifestyle as the communities living in the British Isles adopted agriculture as their primary form of subsistence, abandoning
3321-453: Is much harder than copper, by mixing copper with a small amount of tin . With that discovery, the Bronze Age began in Great Britain. Over the next thousand years, bronze gradually replaced stone as the main material for tool and weapon making. The bronze axehead, made by casting , was at first similar to its stone predecessors but then developed a socket for the wooden handle to fit into and
3444-693: Is now Cornwall and Devon in South West England and thus tin mining began. By around 1600 BC, the South-West experiencing a trade boom, as British tin was exported across Europe. Bronze Age Britons were also skilled at making jewellery from gold , as well as occasional objects like the Rillaton Cup and Mold Cape . Many examples have been found in graves of the wealthy Wessex culture of Southern Britain, but they are not as frequent as Irish finds. The greatest quantities of bronze objects found in what
3567-580: Is now England were discovered in East Cambridgeshire , where the most important finds were recovered in Isleham (more than 6500 pieces ). The earliest known metalworking building was found at Sigwells, Somerset, England. Several casting mould fragments were fitted to a Wilburton type sword held in Somerset County Museum. They were found in association with cereal grain that has been dated to
3690-456: Is on privately owned land. Chestnuts Long Barrow is a scheduled ancient monument , standing on private land belonging to a neighbouring house, Rose Alba. It lies on the slope of a hill and borrows its name from the Chestnuts, an area of woodland that crowns the hill. This name was given to the monument in the mid-20th century; it had previously been known as Stony Warren or Long Warren. The barrow
3813-573: Is that they were inspired either by natural rock formations or by the shape of wooden houses. It has been suggested that their design was based on the wooden long houses found in central Europe during the Early Neolithic, however there is a gap of seven centuries between the last known long houses and the first known chambered long barrows. According to one possible explanation, the long barrows served as markers of place that were connected to Early Neolithic ideas about cosmology and spirituality , and accordingly were centres of ritual activity mediated by
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3936-661: Is the Cotswold-Severn Group found in the west of the island. These are typically chambered long barrows, and contained human bone in comparatively large quantities, averaging between 40 and 50 people in each. The long barrows found in the Netherlands and northern Germany also used stone in their construction where it was available. The examples of long barrows found in parts of Poland are also typically earthen rather than megalithic. Further north, in Denmark and southern Sweden,
4059-505: The Beaker culture , thus indicating a date in the final centuries of the third millennium BCE; this meant that human remains had been placed into the chamber intermittently over a period of 1500 years. This indicates that some chambered long barrows remained in sporadic use until the Late Neolithic. In various cases, archaeologists have found specific bones absent from the assemblages within
4182-537: The Bronze Age , it was marked by the use of copper and then bronze by the prehistoric Britons, who used such metals to fashion tools. Great Britain in the Bronze Age also saw the widespread adoption of agriculture . During the British Bronze Age, large megalithic monuments similar to those from the Late Neolithic continued to be constructed or modified, including such sites as Avebury , Stonehenge , Silbury Hill and Must Farm . That has been described as
4305-459: The Hallstatt culture . In 2021, a major archaeogenetics study uncovered a migration into southern Britain during the 500-year period from 1300 to 800 BC. The newcomers were genetically most similar to ancient individuals from Gaul and had higher levels of Early European Farmers ancestry. From 1000 to 875 BC, their genetic marker swiftly spread through southern Britain, which made up around half
4428-479: The hunter-gatherer lifestyle that had characterised the preceding Mesolithic period. The change came about through contact with continental European societies, although it is unclear to what extent this can be attributed to an influx of migrants or to indigenous Mesolithic Britons adopting agricultural technologies from the continent. The region of modern Kent would have been key for the arrival of continental European settlers and visitors, because of its position on
4551-405: The topsoil . It was probably in this medieval period that the tomb was heavily destroyed, since medieval material was found in some of the pits created by those damaging the chamber and barrow. The destruction was carried out in a systematic manner. Initially, the barrow around the chamber was dug away, and an entrance into it was forced through the drystone wall at the north-western end. The chamber
4674-525: The "Late Neolithic/Early Bronze Age" in recognition of the difficulty of exactly defining the boundary. Some archaeologists recognise a British Chalcolithic when copper was used between the 25th and the 22nd centuries BC, but others do not because production and use were on a small scale. In Ireland, the final Dowris phase of the Late Bronze Age appears to decline in about 600 BC, but iron metallurgy does not appear until about 550 BC. Around 2500 BC,
4797-510: The 12th century BC by carbon dating . The rich Wessex culture developed in southern Great Britain during that time. The weather, previously warm and dry, became much wetter as the Bronze Age continued, which forced the population away from easily-defended sites in the hills and into the fertile valleys . Large livestock farms developed in the lowlands which appear to have contributed to economic growth and inspired increasing forest clearances. The Deverel-Rimbury culture began to emerge during
4920-406: The 17th and 19th centuries, stone and clay marbles, brick tile, and bottles dated from between the 18th and 20th centuries. Alexander suggested that this evidence confirmed local accounts that Chestnuts Long Barrow had been used as a popular spot for picnics . There are also accounts that it was used as a well-known rabbit warren ; during the late 19th century, the field was used as a paddock . In
5043-511: The 18th century. The earliest possible reference to the monuments was provided by the antiquarian John Harris in an ambiguous comment in his History of Kent in Five Parts , published in 1719. In 1773, the site was described in print by the antiquarian Josiah Colebrooke in a short article for Archaeologia , the journal of the Society of Antiquaries of London . He described it as one of the "temples of
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5166-515: The 1950s revealed that they post-dated the Middle Ages, and thus must have been created by more recent landscaping projects. In areas which were previously impacted by glaciation, moraine deposits on valley floors have sometimes been mistaken for long barrows. At Dunham New Park in Cheshire , northwest England, for instance, a mound was initially believed to be a long barrow and only later assessed as
5289-680: The 1980s and 1990s, and—in downplaying religion while emphasising an economic explanation for these monuments—it was influenced by Marxist ideas then popular in the European archaeological establishment. In the early twenty-first century, archaeologists began to challenge this idea, as evidence emerged that much of Early Neolithic Britain was forested and its inhabitants were likely pastoralists rather than agriculturalists . Accordingly, communities in Britain would have been semi-nomadic, with little need for territorial demarcation or clear markings of land ownership. Also, this explanation fails to explain why
5412-660: The British Isles and then the Low Countries and southern Scandinavia. Each area developed its own variations of the long barrow tradition, often exhibiting their own architectural innovations. The purpose and meaning of the barrows remains an issue of debate among archaeologists. One argument is that they are religious sites, perhaps erected as part of a system of ancestor veneration or as a religion spread by missionaries or settlers. An alternative explanation views them primarily in economic terms, as territorial markers delineating
5535-517: The Cotswold-Severn megalithic group. Alexander thought that they bore closest similarities with long barrows along the Atlantic coast, perhaps imitating those of either Ireland or Brittany. The archaeologist Paul Ashbee noted that their close clustering in the same area was reminiscent of the megalithic tomb-shrine traditions of continental Northern Europe, and emphasised that the Medway Megaliths were
5658-508: The Early Neolithic itself. The human remains placed in long barrows often included a mix of men, women, and children. The bones of various individuals were often mixed together. This may have reflected a desire to obliterate distinctions of wealth and status among the deceased. Not all of those who died in the Early Neolithic were buried in these long barrows, although it remains unknown what criteria were used to determine whose remains were interred there and whose were not. Large sections of
5781-581: The Early Neolithic of Western Europe" more than any other, while the archaeologist David Field described them as "among the best known and easily recognised archaeological monuments in the [British] landscape." For the archaeologist Caroline Malone , the long barrows are "some of the most impressive and aesthetically distinctive constructions of prehistoric Britain". Her fellow archaeologist Frances Lynch stated that these long barrows "can still inspire awe, wonder and curiosity even in modern populations familiar with Gothic cathedrals and towering skyscrapers." In
5904-405: The Early Neolithic outdoor exposure of corpses has also been found at Hambledon Hill . The postholes found in front of many long barrows may also have represented the bases of platforms on which excarnation took place. When entering the chambers to either add or remove new material, individuals would likely have been exposed to the smell of decaying corpses. It is unknown if entering this area
6027-431: The Early Neolithic population were not buried in them, although how their bodily remains are dealt with is not clear. It is possible that they were left in the open air. It is also not known where the act of excarnation took place prior to the deposition of bones within the chambers. Some human bones have been found in the ditches of causewayed enclosures , a form of Early Neolithic earthen monument, while evidence for
6150-414: The Early Neolithic would have required the co-operation of a number of different individuals and would have represented an important investment in time and resources. They were built without the use of metal tools. There is often regional variation in style and material. In the north and west of Britain, for instance, long barrows often consist of stone mounds containing chambers inside of them, whereas in
6273-570: The Early Neolithic. They are found across much of Western Europe; stretching from southeast Spain up to southern Sweden and taking in the British Isles to the west. The long barrows are not the world's oldest known structures using stone—they are predated by Göbekli Tepe in modern Turkey—but they do represent the oldest widespread tradition of using stone in construction. The archaeologist Frances Lynch has described them as "the oldest built structures in Europe" to survive, while Field noted that they are
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#17328584415766396-530: The Medway Valley or the North Downs. It is probable that the chamber's entrance was almost entirely blocked by a large stone. While it is difficult to determine the chamber's precise original layout due to damage caused in the medieval period, it is probable that a medial stone divided the chamber in two. A dry stone wall across the west end of the chamber would have also blocked access. Alexander suggested that
6519-433: The ancestry of subsequent Iron Age people in that area, but not in northern Britain. The "evidence suggests that, rather than a violent invasion or a single migratory event, the genetic structure of the population changed through sustained contacts between Britain and mainland Europe over several centuries, such as the movement of traders, intermarriage, and small scale movements of family groups". The authors describe this as
6642-473: The antient Britons". Colebrook's analysis was echoed in the 18th-century writings of Edward Hasted, W. H. Ireland, and John Thorpe. In the early 1840s, the Reverend Beale Post conducted investigations into the Medway Megaliths, writing them up in a manuscript that was left unpublished; this included Addington Long Barrow and Chestnuts Long Barrow, which he collectively labelled the "Addington Circles". In
6765-547: The archaeological record. According to John T. Koch and others, the Celtic languages developed during the Late Bronze Age period in an intensely-trading-networked culture called the Atlantic Bronze Age , which included Britain, Ireland, France, Spain and Portugal, but that stands in contrast to the more generally-accepted view that the Celtic languages developed earlier than that, with some cultural practices developing in
6888-521: The archaeologist Stuart Piggott favoured the term "earthen" barrows for them. Ian Kinnes instead used the term "non-megalithic barrows". These long barrows might have used timber because stone was not available. Some classificatory systems, such as that employed by the United Kingdom's National Monuments Record , do not distinguish between the different types of long barrow. The archaeologist David Field noted that drawing typological distinctions on
7011-410: The area around the megaliths was left undisturbed. At this time, 16 megaliths were visible, lying at various angles. A 15-metre (50-foot) high holly tree stood in the centre of them, and there was no sign of a mound. The landowner, Richard Boyle, opened a few test trenches in the area, during which he discovered Mesolithic flint tools. A large number of surface finds were discovered in both the field and
7134-669: The area of southern Spain, Portugal, southwestern France, and Brittany, the long barrows typically include large stone chambers. In Britain, earthen long barrows predominate across much of the southern and eastern parts of the island. Around 300 earthen long barrows are known from across the eastern side of Britain, from Aberdeenshire in the north down to the South Downs in the south, with two projections westward into Dorset and Galloway . Excavation has suggested that these earthen long barrows were likely constructed between 3800 and 3000 BCE. Another prominent regional tradition in Britain
7257-402: The area, stretching up the hill towards Chestnuts Wood and for at least 180 metres (200 yards) east of the tomb and 370 metres (400 yards) south-west of it. Around 30 metres (100 feet) west of the long barrow, excavation revealed flints in association with what was interpreted as a Mesolithic hearth. The large quantities of Mesolithic material, coupled with its broad spread, indicated that the site
7380-788: The areas controlled by different communities as they transitioned toward farming. Communities continued to use these long barrows long after their construction. In both the Roman period and the Early Middle Ages, many long barrows were reused as cemeteries. Since the sixteenth century they have attracted interest from antiquarians and archaeologists ; it is from the excavations of the latter that our knowledge about them derives. Some have been reconstructed and have become tourist attractions or sacred sites used for rituals by modern Pagan and other religious groups. Given their dispersal across Western Europe, long barrows have been given different names in
7503-552: The basis of material used can mask important similarities between different long barrows. Also criticising the focus on classification, the archaeologists Lewis-Williams and Pearce believed that doing so distracted scholars from the task of explaining the meaning and purpose behind the monuments. Long barrows are single mounds, usually of earth, which are flanked by ditches. They are usually between 20 and 70 metres in length, although there are some exceptional examples at either end of this spectrum. The construction of long barrows in
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#17328584415767626-687: The builders had grown up locally, or moved into the Medway area from elsewhere is not known. Based on a stylistic analysis of their architectural designs, the archaeologist Stuart Piggott thought that the plan behind the Medway Megaliths had originated in the area around the Low Countries , while fellow archaeologist Glyn Daniel instead believed that the same evidence showed an influence from Scandinavia. John H. Evans instead suggested an origin in Germany, and Ronald F. Jessup thought that their origins could be seen in
7749-514: The case. The choice of timber or stone may have arisen from the availability of local materials rather than cultural differences. Those that contained chambers inside of them are often termed chambered long barrows while those which lack chambers are instead called unchambered long barrows or earthen long barrows . The earliest examples developed in Iberia and western France during the mid-fifth millennium BCE. The tradition then spread northwards, into
7872-434: The chamber collapsed, with several stones breaking on the impact of the fall. At some point after they had fallen, the inner pair of the chamber's tall stones were further damaged, likely in a process involving heating them with fire and then casting cold water onto them, resulting in breakage. From the available evidence, it was clear that this demolition was not carried out with the intent of collecting building stone nor for
7995-644: The chamber falls into two categories. One form, known as grottes sepulchrales artificielles in French archaeology, are dug into the earth. The second form, which is more widespread, are known as cryptes dolmeniques in French archaeology and involved the chamber being erected above ground. Many chambered long barrows contained side chambers within them, often producing a cruciform shape. Others had no such side alcoves; these are known as undifferentiated tombs . Some long barrows do not contain chambers inside of them. John Thurnham termed these "unchambered" barrows, while
8118-401: The chamber was dug into and heavily damaged, either by treasure hunters or iconoclastic Christians. The mound gradually eroded and was completely gone by the twentieth century, leaving only the ruined stone chamber. The ruin attracted the interest of antiquarians in the 18th and 19th centuries, while archaeological excavation took place in 1957, followed by limited reconstruction . The site
8241-579: The chambered long barrows should be clustered in certain areas rather than being evenly distributed throughout the landscape. Many of the chambered long barrows have not remained intact, having been damaged and broken up during the millennia. In some cases, most of the chamber has been removed, leaving only the three-stone dolmen. During the first half of the first millennium BCE, many British long barrows saw renewed human activity. At Julliberrie's Grave in Kent, southeast England, three inhumations were buried at
8364-418: The chambers, where they had often been treated in a manner akin to the human remains. Sometimes human remains were deposited in the chambers over many centuries. For instance, at West Kennet Long Barrow in Wiltshire , southern England, the earliest depositions of human remains were radiocarbon dated to the early-to-mid fourth millennium BCE, while a later deposition of human remains was found to belong to
8487-487: The chambers. For instance, at Fussell's Lodge in Wiltshire , southern England, a number of skeletal assemblages were found to be missing not just small bones but also long bones and skulls. It is therefore possible that some bones were deliberately removed from the chambers in the Early Neolithic for use in ritualistic activities. The source of inspiration for the design of the chambered long barrows remains unclear. Suggestions that have proved popular among archaeologists
8610-499: The clearance of ground for cultivation. Alexander believed the damage to the chamber was the result of robbery. Supporting this idea is comparative evidence, with the Close Roll of 1237 ordering the opening of barrows on the Isle of Wight in search for treasure, a practice which may have spread to Kent around the same time. Alexander believed that the destruction may have been brought about by
8733-407: The dead were visited by the living and where people maintained relationships with the deceased. In some cases, the bones deposited in the chamber may have been old when placed there. In other instances, they may have been placed into the chamber long after the long barrow was built. In some instances, collections of bone originally included in the chamber might have been removed and replaced during
8856-500: The dead within their chamber. Individuals were rarely buried alone in the Early Neolithic, instead being interred in collective burials with other members of their community. These chambered tombs were built all along the Western European seaboard during the Early Neolithic, from southeastern Spain up to southern Sweden, taking in most of the British Isles; the architectural tradition was introduced to Britain from continental Europe in
8979-400: The dead. The inclusion of human remains has been used to argue that these long barrows were involved in a form of ancestor veneration . Malone suggested that the prominence of these barrows suggested that ancestors were deemed far more important to Early Neolithic people than their Mesolithic forebears. In the early twentieth century, this interpretation of the long barrows as religious sites
9102-516: The different monuments, such as Coldrum's rectilinear shape, the Chestnut Long Barrow's facade, and the long, thin mounds at Addington and Kit's Coty. These variations might have been caused by the tombs being altered and adapted over the course of their use; in this scenario, the monuments would be composite structures. The Medway Megaliths' builders were probably influenced by pre-existing tomb-shrines elsewhere that they were aware of. Whether
9225-462: The dry stone wall and pavement of the tomb. The chamber had a pavement set in yellow sand, onto which human remains were placed. These human remains were evidenced by the discovery of 3,500 pieces of bone, reflecting a minimum of nine or ten individuals, at least one of whom was a child. Some of these burials were inhumed, and others were cremated, while the earlier bones were deposited alongside Windmill Hill pottery . Little evidence of inhumed burials
9348-407: The earliest monuments surviving in Britain. Although found across this large area, they can be subdivided into clear regionalised traditions based on architectural differences. Excavation has revealed that some of the long barrows in the area of modern Spain, Portugal, and western France were erected in the mid-fifth millennium BCE, making these older than those long barrows further north. Although
9471-536: The earthen mound was constructed before the chamber, and that it was used as a ramp on which to drag the large stones into position. He suggested that the long barrow's builders kept the megaliths in place by filling the chamber with sand. Once the capstone was placed atop and the chamber was stable, he thought, the builders would have removed the supporting sand. In 1950, it was stated that 14 stones survived, however full excavation revealed that 18 large sarsen boulders were extant, alongside four smaller sarsen stones used in
9594-519: The eastern side of the river, most notably the Coffin Stone and White Horse Stone, may also have been parts of such structures. It is not known if they were all built at the same time, or whether they were constructed in succession; nor is it known if they each served the same function or whether there was a hierarchy in their usage. The Medway long barrows all conformed to the same general design plan, and are all aligned on an east to west axis. Each had
9717-654: The estuary of the River Thames and its proximity to the continent. Britain was then largely forested; widespread forest clearance did not occur in Kent until the Late Bronze Age (c. 1000 to 700 BC). Environmental data from the vicinity of the White Horse Stone , a putatively prehistoric monolith near the River Medway , supports the idea that the area was still largely forested in the Early Neolithic, covered by
9840-470: The excavator noted that it was not typical of the item assemblages usually found at Romano-British settlement sites, implying that the building was a field shelter rather than a house. Evidence for human activity near the barrow from the 11th through to the 13th century—during the Middle Ages—appeared in the form of 200 ceramic sherds, two hones , and 17 fragments of daub found by archaeologists in
9963-498: The fallen sarsen megaliths were re-erected in their original sockets, allowing for the restoration of part of the chamber and façade. The finds recovered from the excavation were placed in Maidstone Museum . Alexander's subsequent excavation report was described by Ashbee as "comprehensive" and "a model of its kind", and by Jessup as "a notable example of modern archaeology in the field". Long barrow Long barrows are
10086-513: The first half of the fourth millennium BC. Although now all in a ruinous state, at the time of construction the Medway Megaliths would have been some of the largest and most visually imposing Early Neolithic funerary monuments in Britain. Grouped along the River Medway as it cuts through the North Downs , they constitute the most southeasterly group of megalithic monuments in the British Isles, and
10209-434: The first half of the fourth millennium BCE, either soon after farming or in some cases perhaps just before it. It later spread further north on mainland Europe, for instance arriving in the Netherlands in the second half of the fourth millennium BCE. Later in the Neolithic, burial practices tended to place greater emphasis on the individual, suggesting a growing social hierarchy and a move away from collective burial. One of
10332-407: The first period in which humans built monumental structures in the landscape. These structures included chambered long barrows , rectangular or oval earthen tumuli that had a chamber built into one end. Some of these chambers were constructed out of timber, while others were built using large stones, now known as " megaliths ". These long barrows often served as tombs, housing the physical remains of
10455-403: The general area in which the oldest long barrows were built is therefore known, archaeologists do not know exactly where the tradition started nor which long barrows are the very first ones to have been built. It therefore appears that the architectural tradition developed in this southern area of Western Europe before spreading north, along the Atlantic coast. The tradition had reached Britain by
10578-525: The introduction of agriculture to Britain from continental Europe. Representing an architectural tradition of long barrow building that was widespread across Neolithic Europe, Chestnuts Long Barrow belongs to a localised regional style of barrows produced in the vicinity of the River Medway . The long barrows built in this area are now known as the Medway Megaliths . Chestnuts Long Barrow lies near to both Addington Long Barrow and Coldrum Long Barrow on
10701-407: The islands from the continent. Recent tooth enamel isotope research on bodies found in early Bronze Age graves around Stonehenge indicates that at least some of the new arrivals came from the area of modern Switzerland . The Beaker culture displayed different behaviours from the earlier Neolithic people and cultural change was significant. Many of the early henge sites seem to have been adopted by
10824-456: The landscape, perhaps at the junction between different territories. The archaeologist Caroline Malone noted that the tombs would have served as one of various landscape markers that conveyed information on "territory, political allegiance, ownership, and ancestors". Many archaeologists have subscribed to the idea that these tomb-shrines were territorial markers between different tribes; others have argued that such markers would be of little use to
10947-450: The last chambered tombs erected was Bryn Celli Ddu in Anglesey , Wales, built long after people stopped building them across most of Western Europe. The conscious anachronism of the monument led excavators to suggest that its construction was part of a deliberate attempt by people to restore older religious practices that were extinct elsewhere. Hutton suggested that this tradition "defines
11070-404: The late 1940s, the site was visited by the archaeologists John H. Evans and Albert Egges van Giffen , with the former commenting that they examined the site in its "overgrown state". In 1953, the archaeologist Leslie Grinsell reported that several small trees and bushes had grown up within the megaliths. That year, the field was prepared for horticultural use, being levelled and ploughed, although
11193-480: The local area, and then transported them to the site of the monument to be erected. These common architectural features among the Medway Megaliths indicate a strong regional cohesion with no direct parallels elsewhere in the British Isles. Nevertheless, as with other regional groupings of Early Neolithic long barrows—such as the Cotswold-Severn group in south-western Britain—there are also various idiosyncrasies in
11316-558: The long barrows authored by the Welsh archaeologist Glyn Daniel was published in 1958 as The Megalith Builders of Western Europe . In 1950, Daniel stated that about a tenth of known chambered long barrows in Britain had been excavated, while regional field studies helped to list them. Few of the earlier excavations recorded or retained any human remains found in the chamber. From the 1960s onward, archaeological research increasingly focused on examining regional groups of long barrows rather than
11439-785: The long barrows likely had "broad religious and social roles" for the communities who built and used them, comparing them in this way to the churches of medieval and modern Europe. Many of the long barrows were used as tombs in which to place the remains of deceased individuals. For this reason, archaeologists like Malone have referred to them as "houses of the dead". Conversely, many of the long barrows do not appear to have been used as tombs; various examples that have been excavated by archaeologists have shown no evidence of having had human remains deposited there. The archaeologists David Lewis-Williams and David Peace, however, noted that these long barrows were more than tombs, also being "religious and social foci", suggesting that they were places where
11562-439: The long barrows typically used stone in their construction. The purpose and meaning of Early Neolithic long barrows are not known, though archaeologists can make suggestions on the basis of recurring patterns that can be observed within the tradition. Archaeologists have not, however, agreed upon the most likely meaning and purpose of these monuments, with various different interpretations being put forward. Lynch suggested that
11685-491: The long barrows. Enviro-archaeological studies have demonstrated that many of the long barrows were erected in wooded landscapes. In Britain, these chambered long barrows are typically located on prominent hills and slopes, in particular being located above rivers and inlets and overlooking valleys. In Britain, long barrows were also often constructed near to causewayed enclosures , a form of earthen monument. Across Europe, about 40,000 long barrows are known to survive from
11808-500: The misidentification of other features. Long barrows have been confused with coniger mounds and rabbit warrens , sometimes termed pillow mounds, which can take on a similar shape. Rifle butts can also sometimes take on shapes similar to those of long barrows. Later landscaping has also led to misidentification; the two mounds at Stoke Park in Bristol , southwest England were for instance thought to be long barrows until an excavation in
11931-433: The nature of the original long barrow design. Architecturally, there is much overlap between long barrows and other monument types from Neolithic Europe, such as the bank barrows , cursus monuments , long cairns , and mortuary enclosures . Bank barrows are stylistically similar to the long barrows but are considerably longer. Cursus monuments also exhibit parallel ditches, but also extend over much longer distances than
12054-414: The neurologically generated tiered cosmos", a cosmos mediated by a system of symbols. They suggested that the entrances to the chambers were viewed as transitional zones where sacrificial rituals took place, and that they were possibly spaces for the transformation of the dead using fire. A second explanation is that these long barrows were intrinsically connected to the transition to farming, representing
12177-612: The newcomers. Furthermore, a fundamentally different approach to burying the dead began. In contrast to the Neolithic practice of communal burials, the Bronze Age society undergoes an apparent shift towards focusing on to the individual, rather on the ancestors as a collective. For example, in the Neolithic era, a large chambered cairn or long barrow was used to house the dead. The 'Early Bronze Age' saw people buried in individual barrows , also commonly known and marked on modern British Ordnance Survey maps as tumuli, or sometimes in cists covered with cairns . They were often buried with
12300-496: The norm until the late neolithic". Comparatively rarely, grave goods have been found interred alongside human bone inside the long barrows. Where these have been found, archaeologists have typically interpreted them as the remains of funerary ceremonies or of feasts. The choice of grave goods included reflects regional variation. In the Cotswold-Severn Group in southwestern England, cattle bones were commonly found within
12423-525: The northern and eastern edges of the barrow, but all trace of its western and southern ends had been destroyed by levelling and deep ploughing. The barrow was probably trapezoidal or D-shaped, with a width of about 18 metres (60 feet). At its widest, opposite the façade, this may have extended to 20 metres (64 feet). It was more difficult to determine the long barrow's length, although Alexander suggested that it may have been about 15 metres (50 feet). Britain's Early Neolithic communities placed greater emphasis on
12546-501: The only megalithic group in eastern England. The Medway Megaliths can be divided into two clusters between 8 kilometres (5.0 miles) and 10 kilometres (6.2 miles) apart: one to the west of the River Medway and the other on Blue Bell Hill to the east. Chestnuts Long Barrow is part of the western group, which also includes Coldrum Long Barrow and Addington Long Barrow . The eastern group consists of Smythe's Megalith , Kit's Coty House , and Little Kit's Coty House , while various stones on
12669-427: The remains of up to fifty people. Early 20th-century archaeologists began to call these monuments chambered tombs . The archaeologists Roy and Lesley Adkins referred to these monuments as megalithic long barrows . In most cases, local stone was used where it was available. The decision as to whether a long barrow used wood or stone appears to have been based largely on the availability of resources. The style of
12792-499: The ritual burial of the dead than their Mesolithic forebears. Archaeologists have suggested that this is because Early Neolithic Britons adhered to an ancestor cult that venerated the spirits of the dead, believing that they could intercede with the forces of nature for the benefit of their living descendants. The archaeologist Robin Holgate stressed that rather than simply being tombs, the Medway Megaliths were "communal monuments fulfilling
12915-634: The second half of the 'Middle Bronze Age' (c. 1400–1100 BC) to exploit the wetter conditions. Cornwall was a major source of tin for much of western Europe and copper was extracted from sites such as the Great Orme mine in Northern Wales . Social groups appear to have been tribal, but growing complexity and hierarchies became apparent. There is evidence of a relatively large-scale disruption of cultural patterns (see Late Bronze Age collapse ), which some scholars think may indicate an invasion (or at least
13038-541: The site's stones since at least the 1960s, while at the Coldrum Long Barrow in Kent, a rag tree has been established overhanging the barrow. Many modern Pagans view West Kennet Long Barrow as a "temple" and use it for their rituals. Some see it as a place of the ancestors where they can engage in " vision quests " and other neo-shamanic practices. Others have seen it as a womb of the Great Goddess, and as
13161-430: The site, excavators found 100 sherds of Windmill Hill ware, representing parts of at least eight bowls. Alexander suggested that these were once placed in the chamber but later removed to allow the deposition of further human remains inside it. Although no visible tumulus survived into the 1950s, the name "Long Warren" suggested that knowledge of such a mound had persisted into the 18th century. Excavation found evidence of
13284-525: The site, four ceramic sherds were found nearby which the excavator believed were possibly Early Iron Age in origin. Excavation also revealed 830 ceramic sherds dating from Roman Britain ; these reflected all four centuries of this period, although the majority were 4th century. Also dated to the 4th century was a hut erected on a flat area adjacent to the barrow. Excavation of this hut uncovered 750 ceramic sherds, charcoal, iron nails, burnt clay, bone, and flint fragments. Examining this assemblage of artefacts,
13407-414: The south and east of Britain these long barrows are typically made of earth. Many were altered and restyled over their long period of use. Ascertaining at what date a long barrow was constructed is difficult for archaeologists as a result of the various modifications that were made to the monument during the Early Neolithic. Similarly, both modifications and later damage can make it difficult to determine
13530-674: The southern edge of the ditch around the long barrow. The barrow at Wayland's Smithy in Oxfordshire, also in southeast England, saw a cemetery established around the long barrow, with at least 46 skeletons buried in 42 graves, many having been decapitated. 17 Romano-British burials were discovered at Wor Barrow in Dorset, eight of which were missing their heads. The deposition of coins around long barrows also appears to have been quite common in Roman Britain, and these may have been placed by these monuments as offerings. A hoard of Constantinian coins
13653-694: The various different languages of this region. The term barrow is a southern English dialect word for an earthen tumulus, and was adopted as a scholarly term for such monuments by the 17th-century English antiquarian John Aubrey . Synonyms found in other parts of Britain included low in Cheshire , Staffordshire , and Derbyshire , tump in Gloucestershire and Hereford , howe in Northern England and Scotland, and cairn in Scotland. Another term to have achieved international usage has been dolmen ,
13776-519: The western side of the river. Two further surviving long barrows, Kit's Coty House and Little Kit's Coty House , as well as the destroyed Smythe's Megalith and possible survivals as the Coffin Stone and White Horse Stone , are on the eastern side of the Medway. The long barrow was built on land previously inhabited in the Mesolithic period. It consisted of a sub-rectangular earthen tumulus , estimated to have been 15 metres (50 feet) in length, with
13899-432: The wider architectural tradition. From this decade onward, the meticulous excavation of various long barrows also led to the widespread recognition that long barrows were often multi-phase monuments which had been changed over time. Up until the 1970s, archaeologists widely believed that the long barrows of Western Europe were based on Near Eastern models. Archaeological investigation of long barrows has been hindered by
14022-526: Was a population in Britain that for the first time had ancestry and skin and eye pigmentation similar to Britons today". Several regions of origin have been postulated for the Beaker culture , notably the Iberian Peninsula, the Netherlands and Central Europe. Part of the Beaker culture brought the skill of refining metal to Great Britain. At first, they made items from copper , but from around 2150 BC , smiths had discovered how to make bronze , which
14145-510: Was built with sarsen stones that occur naturally within a few miles of the site. These were arranged as two trilithons , next to each other, so that the two lintel stones formed the roof of the chamber. The chamber was trapezoidal in shape, measuring about 3.7 metres (12 feet) in length, 2.29 metres (7 feet 6 inches) in width, and probably 3.0 metres (10 feet) in height. It was oriented almost east to west, and as with four other Medway Megaliths, it appears to have been facing toward either
14268-454: Was evidence of Early Neolithic cremation at certain sites in Britain, the archaeologists Martin Smith and Megan Brickley suggested that the cremated bone was added later, during the Late Neolithic, when cremation was more common. Along with the human remains were found items probably interred with the dead, such as 34 sherds of ceramic , three stone arrow heads, and a clay pendant. In the forecourt of
14391-451: Was for instance placed in a pot around Julliberrie's Grave. A solitary coin from the reign of Allectus was found in the ditch around the long barrow at Skendleby I. The first serious study of chambered long barrows took place in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, when the mounds that covered chambers were removed by agriculture. By the nineteenth century, antiquarians and archaeologists had come to recognise this style of monument as
14514-485: Was found, in part because they did not survive well in the acidic soils surrounding the site. The appearance of cremated human bone here is unusual; although evidence of cremation has been found at some other long barrows, generally it is rare in Early Neolithic Britain. Ashbee suggested that for this reason, the inclusion of cremated bone here must have had "especial significance". While acknowledging that there
14637-404: Was often connected to the idea that they were the holy sites of a new religion spread by either settlers or missionaries. This explanation has been less popular with archaeologists since the 1970s. Adopting an approach based in cognitive archaeology , Lewis-Williams and Pearce argued that the chambered long barrows "reflected and at the same time constituted... a culturally specific expression of
14760-472: Was probably inhabited over a considerable length of time during the Mesolithic period. Some trenches excavated in 1957 had Mesolithic flints directly below the megaliths, leading the excavator John Alexander to believe that "no great interval of time separated" the Mesolithic and Neolithic uses of the site. Chestnuts Long Barrow was constructed in particularly close proximity to Addington Long Barrow. The chamber
14883-490: Was the probable cause of the medieval damage to the chamber. He suggested that the burial of the stones indicated that Christian zealots had tried to deliberately destroy and defame the pre-Christian monument. Excavation also revealed evidence for modern activity around the site. Three post-medieval pits were identified in and around the barrow, as well as a post-medieval attempt to dig into the chamber. Finds from this period included ceramic sherds, clay pipes dated from between
15006-415: Was then cleared down to the bedrock, with the spoil and contents of the chamber dumped behind the diggers. The medial stone of the chamber was pushed atop the spoil heap, and covered over with soil. A pit was dug in the centre of the chamber, and against its walls from the outside; the central pit was then sealed by the collapsing capstones. Finally, several pits were dug around the façade stones. Subsequently,
15129-427: Was therefore seen by Early Neolithic Europeans as an ordeal to be overcome or an honourable job to be selected for. In some chambers, human remains were arranged and organised according to the type of bone or the age and sex of the individual that they came from, factors that determined which chamber they were placed in. Lynch noted that "the bulk of our surviving evidence suggests that collectivity became and remained
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