Cattle on the side of Woodborough Hill - geograph

Adam's Grave was 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 ...

long barrow Long barrows are a style of monument constructed across Western Europe in the fifth and fourth millennia BCE, during the Early Neolithic period. Typically constructed from earth and either timber or stone, those using the latter material repre ...

near

Alton Barnes Alton may refer to: People *Alton (given name) *Alton (surname) Places Australia * Alton National Park, Queensland * Alton, Queensland, a town in the Shire of Balonne Canada * Alton, Ontario * Alton, Nova Scotia New Zealand * Alton, New Zealan ...

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 ...

, southwest England. Its remains have been scheduled as an

ancient monument In British law, an ancient monument is an early historical structure or monument (e.g. an archaeological site) worthy of preservation and study due to archaeological or heritage interest. The ''Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Areas Act 1979 ...

. The barrow is considered to be of the

Severn-Cotswold tomb The Cotswold-Severn Group are a series of long barrows erected in an area of western Britain during the Early Neolithic. Around 200 known examples of long barrows are known from the Cotswold-Severn region, although an unknown number of others wer ...

type. These generally consist of long, precisely built

trapezoid A quadrilateral with at least one pair of parallel sides is called a trapezoid () in American and Canadian English. In British and other forms of English, it is called a trapezium (). A trapezoid is necessarily a convex quadrilateral in Eu ...

al earth mounds covering burial chambers, thus they are a type of

chambered long barrow Long barrows are a style of monument constructed across Western Europe in the fifth and fourth millennia BCE, during the Early Neolithic period. Typically constructed from earth and either timber or stone, those using the latter material repres ...

. The chamber, made of sarsen stones, contained partial human skeletons. An arrowhead was also recovered. There is a breast-shaped hill on the spot, with the remains of the barrow being long and around high with ditches on either side. It was partially excavated by John Thurnam in 1860. The area around Adam's Grave has a high density of long barrows and is important because of its archaeological potential. The arrangement of stones around the site suggests there was once a kerb or forecourt. They are known as ‘Old Adam and ‘Little Eve’ and are near the original entrance to the barrow. According to

folklore Folklore is shared by a particular group of people; it encompasses the traditions common to that culture, subculture or group. This includes oral traditions such as tales, legends, proverbs and jokes. They include material culture, ranging ...

the barrow is the grave of a giant, and his ghost has been reported. Associations with the nearby monument at

Avebury Avebury () is a Neolithic henge monument containing three stone circles, around the village of Avebury in Wiltshire, in southwest England. One of the best known prehistoric sites in Britain, it contains the largest megalithic stone circle in ...

have also been suggested. In the Anglo-Saxon period it was known as "

Woden Odin (; from non, Óðinn, ) is a widely revered god in Germanic paganism. Norse mythology, the source of most surviving information about him, associates him with wisdom, healing, death, royalty, the gallows, knowledge, war, battle, victory ...

's Barrow" (Old English "Wōdnesbeorġ") and the '' Anglo-Saxon Chronicle'' records two battles at the site in

592 __NOTOC__ Year 592 ( DXCII) was a leap year starting on Tuesday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. The denomination 592 for this year has been used since the early medieval period, when the Anno Domini calendar era be ...

and

715 __NOTOC__ Year 715 ( DCCXV) was a common year starting on Tuesday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. The denomination 715 for this year has been used since the early medieval period, when the Anno Domini calendar era ...

References

External links

{{Authority control 4th-millennium BC architecture Buildings and structures in Wiltshire History of Wiltshire Archaeological sites in Wiltshire Barrows in England Stone Age sites in Wiltshire Scheduled monuments in Wiltshire