Scattered across the Cotswold Hills in the mid-west of England are more than a hundred stone-built long barrows dating to the period 3800 to 3300 BC, one of the most dense concentrations of such monuments in north-west Europe. They have been the subject to study for more than three centuries, but few have been excavated in modern times. Some, including Hazleton North (Gloucestershire) and Ascott-under-Wychwood (Oxfordshire), are clearly single-phase constructions. Others, including Notgrove (Gloucestershire) and Wayland’s Smithy (Oxfordshire) are multi-phase monuments in which changing preferences are expressed through successive architectural forms and structures. This lecture will briefly explore what we currently know about the range of monuments dating to the early fourth millennia BC in the Cotswolds, considering issues relating to construction, form, and sequence, before moving on to reflect on the nature and content of the burial deposits and the key matter of identity as expressed by the monuments themselves. The lecture draws on the preliminary results of on-going excavations at a multi-phase long barrow at The Sisters near Cirencester in Gloucestershire.

Signed copies of Timothy’s book Prehistoric Gloucestershire will be avaiable to buy from the Corinium Museum shop.

Biography: Timothy Darvill is Professor of Archaeology in the Department of Archaeology and Anthropology in Bournemouth University. His research interests focus on the early farming communities of northwest Europe, and archaeological resource management. As well as excavating inside the stone circles at Stonehenge in 2008, he has also investigated prehistoric sites and landscapes in England, Wales, Isle of Man, Germany, Russia, and Malta.

Booking recommended