| Summary : An oval or sub-rectangular mound of probable Neolithic date, one of a complex of monuments investigated as part of the Raunds area project. The mound was made up of turf and topsoil. It survived to a height of 0.50 metres, and may originally have measured circa 30 metres by 20 metres. Two parallel gullies circa 10 metres apart and 15 metres long, aligned southwest-northeast, were subsequently cut into the top of the mound. Their fills include quantities of burnt material and evidence for upright stakes, which may have been burnt in situ. These stake fences thus appear to have defined a semi-enclosed area on top of the mound, sharing an alignment with the nearby long enclosure (SP 97 SE 84). Finds associated with the mound suggest a later Neolithic/earlier Bronze Age date. A probable tree-hollow contianing flints (including two leaf-shaped arrowheads) pre-dated the mound. Some Beaker sherds were found on top of the mound, and also within a pit cut into the mound. This activity is believed to be contemporary a second phase of stake fences. At some stage, the southern part of the mound was cut by the digging of a circular ditch. This has been interpreted in some interim reports as a round barrow (designated "Barrow 2"), comprising a simple turf and topsoil mound. The ditch encloses an area circa 21 metres in diameter. Beneath the mound was a pit which contained a red deer antler and a "dark stain tentatively interpreted as a body stain". However, a more recent account of the site regards the ring ditch as encircling the southern half of the turf mound, and states that there was no evidence that the pit had contained an inhumation. Thus the pit itself is regarded as the main feature beneath the turf mound rather than beneath a separate barrow mound. |