Long Low is a

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 ...

and

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 ...

site in the English county of Staffordshire. It is about 2 km SE of Wetton (). It consists of two round cairns linked by a connecting bank – an unusual layout and one that is unique in England. The northern cairn measures in diameter and survives to a height of . It appears to be related to other

chamber tomb A chamber tomb is a tomb for burial used in many different cultures. In the case of individual burials, the chamber is thought to signify a higher status for the interred than a simple grave. Built from rock or sometimes wood, the chambers could ...

s of the

Peak District The Peak District is an upland area in England at the southern end of the Pennines. Mostly in Derbyshire, it extends into Cheshire, Greater Manchester, Staffordshire, West Yorkshire and South Yorkshire. It includes the Dark Peak, where moorla ...

group and was excavated by Samuel Carrington in 1849. Carrington found a burial chamber built from

limestone Limestone ( calcium carbonate ) is a type of carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of . Limestone forms whe ...

orthostat This article describes several characteristic architectural elements typical of European megalithic (Stone Age) structures. Forecourt In archaeology, a forecourt is the name given to the area in front of certain types of chamber tomb. Forecourts ...

s with a paved floor. The bones of thirteen individuals were recovered as well as three leaf-shaped flint arrowheads. The smaller southern cairn is across and survives to in height following extensive modern damage. It contained evidence of a cremation burial. Further cremations were found in the connecting bank which was built from a parallel row of limestone orthostats and is around long, wide and high. It is now topped by a modern

dry stone wall Dry stone, sometimes called drystack or, in Scotland, drystane, is a building method by which structures are constructed from stones without any mortar to bind them together. Dry stone structures are stable because of their construction m ...

. Because of the damage to the site, its rarity and the antiquity of the Carrington excavation it is unclear as to the precise nature of the monument. It is possible that the bank is a

bank barrow A bank barrow, sometimes referred to as a barrow-bank, ridge barrow, or ridge mound, is a type of tumulus first identified by O.G.S. Crawford in 1938. In the United Kingdom, they take the form of a long, sinuous, parallel-sided mound, approximat ...

which had a later Neolithic chambered cairn (the north cairn) built on one end and then a Bronze Age round barrow finally added at the southern end.

References

{{coord, 53.08218, N, 1.81932, W, region:GB_source:enwiki-osgb36(SK122539), display=title History of Staffordshire Stone Age sites in England Scheduled monuments in Staffordshire Bronze Age sites in Staffordshire Barrows in England