Belas Knap

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Scheme of the Cotswold Severn Tomb
Belas Knap
Western chamber
Patterns of Cotswold Severn plants

Bela Knap is a megalithic type Cotswold Severn Tomb . It is located on Cleeve Hill , three kilometers south of Winchcombe , on Winchcombe Way, in Gloucestershire , England . Cotswold Severn Tombs lie on either side of the River Severn and in Wales , with the highest concentration in Gloucestershire.

The origin of the name is unclear. Knap is a rounded hill.

Excavations

Belas Knap was excavated in 1929 by Sir James Berry (1860-1946).

Classification

A classification of the Cotswold-Severn Tombs was made in 1869 by Thurnam (1810–1873). In 1922 his plan was changed by Osbert Guy Stanhope Crawford (1886-1957) and in 1950 by Glyn Daniel (191401986). The distinguishing feature of all systems is that a distinction is made between terminal and laterally chambered hills. The analysis of the chambers is used for the sub-categorization. The group is very heterogeneous in terms of the shape of the chamber. The common feature is the trapezoidal shape of the hill and the high quality of the dry stone wall cladding, of which Belas Knap is an excellent example.

The forecourt

Belas Knap has the usual funnel-shaped forecourt, with high walls on the facade, which also border the remaining hill in a low form. In the middle of the facade there is a false entrance , as a trilith with a large door panel. The lower part of the dry masonry and the false door are original. The fall is a modern replacement. Other side-chambered Cotswold-Severn Tombs also have false entrances.

Chamber constructions

There are four chambers (B, C, D and E or 1 to 4). Three are on the long sides, while E or 3 starts from the end of the hill.

Chamber B

Chamber B (or 2) has the widespread long rectangular floor plan and has dry masonry above the low orthostats (such as the tumulus of Kercado in Brittany ) , the stones in the rear area of ​​the chamber are particularly small. The one meter wide chamber narrows from the middle of its length. The difference between the two sections is reinforced by a transverse plate. Chamber B had a flat ceiling, only the entrance was provided with a cantilever vault .

Chambers C and D

The opposite chambers C and D (1 and 4) on the hill sides are polygonal , about two meters wide and have short corridors. A polygonal floor plan is not common for hills with lateral chambers. The chambers consist of five or six orthostats, the gaps between which are filled with dry stone walls. The roof, which cannot be covered, is said to have been a cantilever vault, but it was reconstructed flat. The narrow corridors are made of dry stone walls. The presumably displaced side stones in chamber C show hollowed out edges. It is possible that they formed the gateway. Soul hole entrances have also been found in other Cotswold-Severn tombs with side chambers, in Rodmarton (in the north and south chambers) and in Luckington (in chambers A and B).

Chamber E

The shape of Chamber E (3) is unclear as it was disrupted during previous excavations. Today's reconstruction as a straight corridor made of dry stone with a large end stone is wrong. Old drawings show a polygonal chamber made of dry masonry. The mound cover continued unbroken across the entrance to the chamber.

structure

The completely reconstructed hill is now about 55 m long, at the widest point 18.5 m wide and at the northern end about four meters high. However, the excavations have shown that the mound was originally over 60 meters long and over 25 meters wide. Side ditches next to the quarrying facilities are a feature of the Cotswold Severn tombs.

The cairn was built with great care. It is not just posed, but has an internal structure. It is possible that the cairns were covered with flat stones, a structure that could be seen in other Cotswold Severn tombs (e.g. Rodmarton). During excavations in the 1860s, a trench was dug through the cairn on the longitudinal axis. It started behind the false portal and ran to a trench that was dug across the hill next to Chambers C and D. At the intersection of the trenches there was a stone circle 2.2 m in diameter. The ground around the stones was soaked with ash. In a subsequent excavation in 1929, however, no trace of a circle was found. What was remarkable was the realization that the chambers were initially built separately, each with its own mound, before they were integrated into the cairn. Corcoran points out in his report on the Cotswold-Severn Cairns that the most common form of the chambers of laterally chambered systems cannot be distinguished from passage tombs . This also applies to chambers C and D of Belas Knap before they were accepted into the Cairn.

If these free-standing units existed before the pile of stones was built, this could explain some of the special features of Belas Knap. The majority of the Cotswold-Severn tombs face northeast-southwest, with very few, like Belas Knap, north-facing. If, however, the chambers C, D, possibly also B were present, only the north remained as a possibility. The end of the cairn is angled approximately 10 degrees from the axis of the cairn. This distortion may have been necessary to integrate the existing chamber E into the mound.

Finds

The most important finds from Belas Knap were amounts of human bones. The record from the spring of 1863 describes the uplift of a large slab at the southeast corner of the hill. Here the remains of four skeletons were found, including two skulls. These were probably the remains of Chamber B. The attention then turned to the northern end and the forecourt and the false entrance were uncovered. During the removal of the fall, the remains of five children and one animal were found. Chamber C contained the remains of 12 and Chamber D those of 14 skeletons. Later excavations made the picture more precise and finally the remains of 38 people emerged. An interesting finding in Chamber C was a complete skeleton near the entrance while the others in the chamber were mixed together. Other Cotswold Severn tombs showed similar patterns, intact skeletons near the entrance with mixed piles of bones inside. This could be the result of a decarnation in the entrance area. Although the exact nature of the burial is unlikely to be fully understood, the fact remains that the bones within the chambers have been manipulated or supplemented over an extended period of time. Other finds were sparse. Roman pottery, a bone shovel, a few flints and two small Roman bronze coins from the late 3rd century. Among the finds from Belas Knap, the adult skulls from the false entrance led to discussions.

Thurnam's skull puzzle

In the 19th century, the doctor John Thurnam (1810–1873) examined the skull finds of prehistoric burial mounds and noticed a sharp distinction between skulls from round hills and those from long hills. This led him to the sentence: "Long barrows, long skulls, round barrows, round skulls". He examined 17 skulls from Belas Knap. That was the greatest number from a long bed. He encountered an anomaly that challenged his theory because one of the skulls was round. The male adult skull found in front of the wrong entrance had all the characteristics of the brachycephalic skull, which are usually only found in bell-beaker-age round mounds. The finding sparked discussion. Much later, the Belas Knap bones were dated using the radiocarbon method . The results ranged between 4000 and 3700 BC, consistent with results from other Cotswold Severn Tombs. The result of the round skull was in the middle. In any case, it was at the same time as the long skulls, and more than a thousand years younger than the round skulls of the bell-cup culture.

Thurnam's statement was extensively verified and confirmed in 1990.

Individual evidence

  1. James Berry, Belas Knap Long Barrow, Gloucestershire: report of the excavations of 1929. Gloucester, Bristol and Gloucestershire Archaeological Society 1929

literature

  • JXWP Corcoran: In: Thomas George Eyre Powell (Ed.) Megalithic Inquiries in the West of Britain . Liverpool University Press 1969, p. 61.
  • Timothy Darvill: The megalithic chambered tombs of the Cotswold-Severn region, an assessment of certain architectural elements and their relation to ritual practice and Neolithic society. Highworth, Vorda 1982.
  • Timothy Darvill: Long barrows of the Cotswolds and surrounding areas . Stroud, Tempus, 2004.
  • Joseph Barnard Davis, John Thurnam: Crania britannica: Delineations and descriptions of the skulls of the aboriginal and early inhabitants of the British Islands: with notices of their other remains by Joseph Barnard Daviss 1865
  • Frances Lynch: Megalithic Tombs and Long Barrows in Britain . Shire, Princes Risborough 1997, ISBN 0-7478-0341-2 p. 53 ( Shire archeology 73).

Web links

Commons : Belas Knap  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Coordinates: 51 ° 55 ′ 38.6 "  N , 1 ° 58 ′ 15.4"  W.