An oval barrow is the name given by archaeologists to a type of

prehistoric Prehistory, also known as pre-literary history, is the period of human history between the use of the first stone tools by hominins 3.3 million years ago and the beginning of recorded history with the invention of writing systems. The use o ...

burial

tumulus A tumulus (plural tumuli) is a mound of earth and stones raised over a grave or graves. Tumuli are also known as barrows, burial mounds or ''kurgans'', and may be found throughout much of the world. A cairn, which is a mound of stones bui ...

of roughly oval shape. In the British mid to late

Neolithic The Neolithic period, or New Stone Age, is an Old World archaeological period and the final division of the Stone Age. It saw the Neolithic Revolution, a wide-ranging set of developments that appear to have arisen independently in several par ...

and early

Bronze Age The Bronze Age is a historic period, lasting approximately from 3300 BC to 1200 BC, characterized by the use of bronze, the presence of writing in some areas, and other early features of urban civilization. The Bronze Age is the second pr ...

, oval barrows may indicate a transition between earlier long barrows with multiple burials and the later, more individual

round barrow A round barrow is a type of tumulus and is one of the most common types of archaeological monuments. Although concentrated in Europe, they are found in many parts of the world, probably because of their simple construction and universal purpose. ...

s. Judging from those sited in or near the Thames Valley, there is much doubt as to how oval barrows are related to the burials found within them and funerary practices, because there can be a long gap of many years between an original burial and the construction of the barrow.

Examples in England

Buckinghamshire

Whiteleaf Hill

There is a neolithic oval barrow near the top of Whiteleaf Hill, Monks Risborough, Buckinghamshire (National Grid: SP 822040), which was first excavated by Sir Lindsay Scott between 1934 and 1939 and re-excavated from 2002 to 2006 by Oxford Archaeology (assisted by the Princes Risborough Countryside Group). The mound is roughly oval, but indented on the north-eastern side, making it somewhat kidney-shaped. The barrow held only one burial and radio-carbon dating has shown that the death, the burial and the building of the mound probably all took place within the period 3,750-3,100 B.C., but at different times within that period. The remains appeared to have been placed between two large vertical posts, 1.2 metres apart. Pottery shards and animal bones were found at the core of the mound and the excavators suggest that these came from ceremonial feasting when the mound was built.

Dorney Reach

This is a mid-neolithic barrow dated to the approximate period 3300–2800 BC. Previously known only from a cropmark, magnetometry and resistivity surveys have produced more detailed information about this unexcavated site, which is on level ground on the flood plain of the River Thames at SU 9170 7935, 250 metres from the river. They reveal an oval ditch with external dimensions of about 20 by 12.5 metres. The axis lies NNE-SSW. Indications of two pits at the centre may represent a split-timber mortuary structure, as was found at Whiteleaf.

Marsh Lane East (site 2)

It is believed that this was originally a neolithic oval barrow, but it was re-cut in the Bronze Age, so that little of the original barrow remains.

Oxfordshire

AbingdonSee Bradley

Kent

Yorkshire

Notes

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References

* Bradley R. (1992), ''The excavation of an oval barrow beside the Abingdon causewayed enclosure, Oxfordshire'', Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society vol.58 * Childe, V.G. and Isobel Smith: ''The Excavation of a Neolithic Barrow on Whiteleaf Hill, Bucks'' in Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society for 1954, (New Series, Vol.XX, no.8), pp. 212–30 * Hey, Gill, Caroline Dennis & Andrew Mayes: ''Archaeological Investigations on Whiteleaf Hill, Princes Risborough, Buckinghamshire, 2002-6'' in Records of Buckinghamshire, Vol 47 part 2, pp. 1–80 (Buckinghamshire Archaeological Society, Aylesbury. 2007) * Lamdin-Whymark, Hugh: ''The Residue of Ritualised Action: Neolithic Deposition Practices in the Middle Thames Valley'' (British Archaeological Reports - British Series no.466. 2008) * Lamdin-Whymark, Hugh and Darko Maricevic: ''On the Survey of a Neolithic oval Barrow at Dorney Reach, Buckinghamshire'' in Records of Buckinghamshire, Vol 49, pp. 1–7 (Buckinghamshire Archaeological Society, Aylesbury. 2009) Types of monuments and memorials Barrows in England