A bowl barrow is a type of burial mound or

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 bu ...

. A barrow is a mound of earth used to cover a tomb. The bowl barrow gets its name from its resemblance to an upturned bowl. Related terms include ''cairn circle'', ''cairn ring'', ''howe'', ''kerb cairn'', ''tump'' and ''rotunda grave''.

Description

Bowl barrows were created from the

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 p ...

through to the

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 prin ...

Great Britain Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the northwest coast of continental Europe. With an area of , it is the largest of the British Isles, the largest European island and the ninth-largest island in the world. It i ...

. A bowl barrow is an approximately hemispherical mound covering one or more

Inhumations 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 ...

cremation Cremation is a method of final disposition of a dead body through burning. Cremation may serve as a funeral or post-funeral rite and as an alternative to burial. In some countries, including India and Nepal, cremation on an open-air pyre is ...

s. Where the mound is composed entirely of stone, rather than earth, the term cairn replaces the word barrow. The mound may be simply a mass of earth or stone, or it may be structured by concentric rings of posts, low stone walls, or upright stone slabs. In addition, the mound may have a

kerb A curb (North American English), or kerb (Commonwealth English except Canada; see spelling differences), is the edge where a raised sidewalk or road median/central reservation meets a street or other roadway. History Although curbs have ...

of stones or wooden posts. Barrows were usually built in isolation in various situations on plains, valleys and hill slopes, although the most popular sites were those on hilltops. Bowl barrows were first identified in

John Thurnam John Thurnam (28 December 1810 – 24 September 1873) was an English psychiatrist, archaeologist, and ethnologist. In 1846 he was appointed Medical Superintendent of The Retreat, the Quaker psychiatric hospital near York. In 1848 he reported tw ...

(1810–73), an English psychiatrist, archaeologist, and

ethnologist Ethnology (from the grc-gre, ἔθνος, meaning 'nation') is an academic field that compares and analyzes the characteristics of different peoples and the relationships between them (compare cultural, social, or sociocultural anthropology) ...

British bowl barrows

English Heritage English Heritage (officially the English Heritage Trust) is a charity that manages over 400 historic monuments, buildings and places. These include prehistoric sites, medieval castles, Roman forts and country houses. The charity states that i ...

proposed the following classification of British bowl barrows: * Type 1: Kerbless and ditchless barrows * Type 2: Kerbless with continuous ditch * Type 3: Kerbless with penannular ditch * Type 4: Kerbless with segmented ditch * Type 5: Kerbed but ditchless * Type 6: Kerbed with continuous ditch * Type 7: Kerbed with pennanular ditch * Type 8: Kerbed with segmented ditch * Type 9: Structured but ditchless * Type 10: Structured with continuous ditch * Type 11: Structured with penannular ditch * Type 12: Structured with segmented ditch

Tump

Tump is

Worcestershire Worcestershire ( , ; written abbreviation: Worcs) is a county in the West Midlands of England. The area that is now Worcestershire was absorbed into the unified Kingdom of England in 927, at which time it was constituted as a county (see H ...

dialect The term dialect (from Latin , , from the Ancient Greek word , 'discourse', from , 'through' and , 'I speak') can refer to either of two distinctly different types of linguistic phenomena: One usage refers to a variety of a language that is a ...

term for a small hill, such as a barrow, even a large barrow such as the Whittington Tump in the village of

Whittington Whittington may refer to: Places * Whittington, Victoria, Australia * Whittington, Illinois, United States England * Old Whittington, Derbyshire * New Whittington, Derbyshire * Whittington Moor, Derbyshire * Whittington, Gloucestershire * Whit ...

south east of Worcester, or an "unty tump" meaning mole hill (unty being Worcestershire dialect for a

mole Mole (or Molé) may refer to: Animals * Mole (animal) or "true mole", mammals in the family Talpidae, found in Eurasia and North America * Golden moles, southern African mammals in the family Chrysochloridae, similar to but unrelated to Talpida ...

). It is related to the

Welsh language Welsh ( or ) is a Celtic language of the Brittonic subgroup that is native to the Welsh people. Welsh is spoken natively in Wales, by some in England, and in Y Wladfa (the Welsh colony in Chubut Province, Argentina). Historically, it has ...

term ''

Twmpath ''Twmpath'' () is a Welsh word literally meaning a hump or tump, once applied to the mound or village green upon which the musicians sat and played for the community to dance. ''Twmpath dawnsiau'' were a form of barn dance organised by Urdd Gobai ...

'' which was once applied to the mound or village green. From a short

list of tumps Tump means a hillock, mound, barrow or tumulus. The Welsh words and may be related. Although some may appear similar to glacial drumlins, for the most part they are man-made, e.g. remains from mineral extraction, burial mounds tumulus, (tumuli ...

, it can be seen that the term is used extensively in the Welsh Marches and its use extends beyond that, to

Somerset ( en, All The People of Somerset) , locator_map = , coordinates = , region = South West England , established_date = Ancient , established_by = , preceded_by = , origin = , lord_lieutenant_office =Lord Lieutenant of Somerset , lord_ ...

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 ...

, Oxfordshire, and Buckinghamshire.

References

External links

Monument Class Description - Bowl Barrows

British Burial Barrows: Bowl Barrows
Bronze Age Britain Types of monuments and memorials Stone Age Britain Barrows in England {{UK-archaeology-stub

Description

British bowl barrows

Tump

See also

References

External links