More information : [NZ 71401140] Robin Hood Butts [NAT] Tumulus [NR] (1) This very large tumulus, over 12 feet in height and 100 feet in diameter, may be the one in which Atkinson found flints resembling Palaeolithic implements (especially as the other two tumuli bearing the name, NZ 71 SW 3 and 19 can reasonably be identified with other Atkinson excavations). (2) "Robin Hood's Butt Howe". This very large howe, 90 feet in diameter and 13 feet in height, was excavated by Atkinson in July 1864. The primary burial had been removed by previous explorers but he noted that it must have been about 1 1/2 feet above the floor of the barrow and protected by a small cairn. Among the spoil left by the previous explorers was a hat-full of large slices and flakes of flint, worked and unworked, a few resembling Palaeolithic implements, although smaller in size. A secondary cremation burial was found in the south side of the barrow about 18 feet from its centre, at a depth of four feet. It consisted of an urn, one of the finest in Atkinson's collection (in the British Museum), 18 inches in height and the same in diameter at its carination. It contained only calcined bones. (3) A very large round barrow, 30.0m in diameter and 3.0m high, robbed at the centre. Published survey (25") revised. (4)
NZ 7140 1140. Robin Hood Butts East/NYM 32 in corpus. The urn was of Longworth's Secondary Series, NW Style, Form II. (Longworth 1120). (5)
The barrow was also mapped as part of the North York Moors National Park NMP project, visible as an earthwork on air photographs and centred at NZ 7141 1140. The barrow has a prospection pit dug into its centre and has a maximum diameter measuring 27m. The barrow is extant on the latest 2009 vertical photography. (7)
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