More information : NZ 0010 3971 and NZ 0012 3979 Mounds and Tumuli. (1)
Situated at NZ 0009 3979 is a heather covered cairn 6m in diameter
and 0.6m high. Two stones on edge in the SW are probably the remains
of a kerb. The NE of the cairn has been mutilated by an excavation,
the debris being dumped outside in the NNE. The centre is still
intact. Surveyed at 1:2500. At NZ 008 3982 is a heather covered
stony mound, 4m in diameter and 0.5m high; this along with a few
probable stone clearance heaps to the SE represent the remains of a
slight field system though no other traces are evident. (2)
NZ 0010 3971. Crawley Edge. Twenty seven mounds ranging in size from 8.50m diameter and 0.75m high to 1.8m diameter and 0.22m high. (3)
NZ 0010 3971 Crawley Edge. One large slightly damaged cairn (NZ 0009
3972) and one small cairn, excavated from at least 27 cairns, all
around 330m OD, and ranging in diameter from 0.74m to 8m. Excavation
of the large cairn revealed a basal layer of boulders and a kerb 4.8m
E-W by 4.2m N-S. A disturbed cist was found in the SW quadrant, to
the E of which was grey loamy soil containing charcoal, 3 small
tubular shale beads (late Neolithic/ early Bronze Age) and several
fragments of bone (tentatively animal but some possibly human). In
the centre of the sub-circular stone setting was a sub-rectangular
pit about 0.7m in each direction, slab-lined on the S and W sides and
containing an upright urn with clay packing. A broken saddle quern
was also found in the mound and a scatter of charcoal on the soil
surface below the cairn may suggest clearance prior to its building.
Several flint implements and flakes from the cairn and surrounding
soil surface were also found.
The second small cairn to the north, a separate entity, was excavated
down to the mineral soil but no features were observed in or beneath
it (4a-b). (4)
The 'large' cairn at NZ 0009 3979 has been completely excavated
revealing a complex structure (see GPS) consisting of (a) a kerb of
boulders on the natural surface (apparently not earthfast) giving an
external diameter of 5m ENE-WSW by 3.8m transversely (see sketch).
There is now no trace of internal features.
The original cairn was extended by adding another kerb (b) onto its S
side thus giving overall dimensions of 6.4m NNW-SSE by about 5.5m
transversely. A 'cist' (c) made from about 8 boulders is set up
against the outside of the original kerb in the SE of the extension
and possibly another (d) where the two kerbs join (with a definite
kink) in the SW.
(See GPs from the W and NE)
There is no trace of the 'small' cairn excavation which was almost
certainly a clearance heap and nowhere could a 'cairn' be found
answering to the largest dimension of 8m.
The mound at NZ 0008 3982 is untouched.
Situated at NY 9974 4017 is another similar, partly heather covered,
stoney mound (see GP), 5.5m diameter 0.5 maximum height, slightly
'howked' in its centre but apparently undisturbed. It is possible
that this is a burial cairn but most probably it is no more than a
larger clearance heap as several similar but smaller mounds are
evident about 20-30m to the south of it. From here, SE along the
ridge to the cairn at NZ 0009 3979, are traces of a field system with
occasional stone clearance heaps about 1m to 4m diameter, though
no fields, walls or lynchets.
Published survey (1:2500) Revised. Field System delineated on 1:10
000 trace. (5)
The cairnfield, centred at NZ 000 397, was surveyed at 1:1000 by
RCHME in 1984. The cairnfield lies on the gentle S and SE-facing
slopes of a hill-spur in open moorland. Forty-two heather-covered
cairns were identified, two of which had been excavated by Young and
Welfare in the 1970s. The cairn at NZ 0009 3979, in which the cist
and pit containing an enlarged food vessel were found, is still
exposed. About 3m to the N, the site of the other excavated cairn,
which contained no structural remains, is marked by the top of a
large earthfast boulder. The remaining mounds of stones vary from
about 1.5m to 7.5m in diameter and from 0.1 to 0.7m in height; almost
all are roughly circular and none have a definite kerb. They appear
to be no more than stone clearance heaps. It is possible, however,
that four of the largest mounds may be sepulchral; two appear to have
been robbed, but no internal features are evident. Full information
is available in the NMR Archive. (6)
The site was re-visited by RCHME in 1991. There was no sign of any
change since the survey of 1984. (7)
A full excavation report with plans, sections and photographs has
been published. (8)
|