Barrows
From Traditional Witchcraft Wiki Project
A Barrow is a large mound of earth, normally akin to an upturned pudding, which may or may not be placed over a burial site, and were brought to England around 2200 BC by the Beaker People. The word 'barrow' comes from the Old English beorg, which in turn comes from the Germanic bergaz, meaning 'unattested'. These prehistoric monuments are very common, and are always on the horizon of open land or upon hilltops, as opposed to hidden away in woodlands, which suggests they were meant to be seen. They are sometimes referred to as a tumulus, which is a Latin word referring to a hillock. Most of these burials are from the Bronze Age, but were still used throughout the Iron Age & into the Dark Ages, however during the Bronze Age the shape of the mounds began to vary from the standard bowl shape, becoming bell, disc and saucer shaped. They usually contain single burials, and the body (or more commonly cremated ashes) is often accompanied by grave-goods, especially during the Bronze Age when such burials were reserved for the remains of more important people. Not all barrows contain interred remains, some being thought to be territorial rather than funerary.
Long barrows differ from pudding barrows in that the former are usually for communal burials, sometimes containing up to 50 bodies, and are of Neolithic origin. They may be entirely of earth or contain a stone chamber interred beneath a mound of earth. Such tombs were often used for ritual purposes involving the bones of the dead, and it appears that the bodies were generally interred after the flesh had been removed from the bones; unlike pudding barrows very few contain grave goods. Like pudding barrows, these tombs appear not to have been for all and sundry, but for the select few. They may be anywhere up to 350 feet in length, and often with the larger end, where the bodies were interred, pointing east and the tapered end facing west, which some believe points to an association with the rising sun.
