A pond barrow is a

burial mound Burial, also known as interment or inhumation, is a method of final disposition whereby a dead body is placed into the ground, sometimes with objects. This is usually accomplished by excavating a pit or trench, placing the deceased and objec ...

, circular in shape, well formed, and with an embanked rim made of the earth taken from the depression made in the ground. In the barrow's centre there is generally a pit or shaft, sometimes containing a burial, sometimes of great depth. The barrows range from 5m to 30m (16.5 – 100 ft) in diameter. They are usually difficult to recognise, as time has rendered them less and less visible.

History of the pond barrow

It is generally agreed that the pond barrows were mainly built during the middle of the second millennium BC, mostly in

Wiltshire Wiltshire (; abbreviated Wilts) is a historic and ceremonial county in South West England with an area of . It is landlocked and borders the counties of Dorset to the southwest, Somerset to the west, Hampshire to the southeast, Gloucestershire ...

and

Dorset Dorset ( ; archaically: Dorsetshire , ) is a county in South West England on the English Channel coast. The ceremonial county comprises the unitary authority areas of Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole and Dorset. Covering an area of , ...

. They were first defined by Sir Richard Colt Hoare in 1810 in a book regarding the ancient history of south Wiltshire, but they were first excavated by

William Stukeley William Stukeley (7 November 1687 – 3 March 1765) was an English antiquarian, physician and Anglican clergyman. A significant influence on the later development of archaeology, he pioneered the scholarly investigation of the prehistoric ...

earlier. The term, however, was invented by Hoare, although "barrow" refers to a hill and so this is a fairly misleading term.

Uses

The fact that only small amounts of human remains are found in the barrows suggests that they may have been used as ceremonial focuses rather than graves, and that mortuary rituals may have been carried out with them. Other possible uses include wells, for communications with the

underworld The underworld, also known as the netherworld or hell, is the supernatural world of the dead in various religious traditions and myths, located below the world of the living. Chthonic is the technical adjective for things of the underworld. ...

and for

dancing Dance is a performing art form consisting of sequences of movement, either improvised or purposefully selected. This movement has aesthetic and often symbolic value. Dance can be categorized and described by its choreography, by its repertoire ...

in.

References

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English Heritage
Bronze Age Britain Types of monuments and memorials Barrows in England