Stoney Littleton

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Scheme of the Cotswold Severn Tomb
Stoney Littleton floor plan, top left

Stoney Littleton is one of the best preserved Neolithic (4000-2500 BC) megalithic sites in England . It is south of the hamlet of Wellow and Bath in the County of Avon in Bath and North East Somerset .

The south-east-north-west-oriented system of the Cotswold Severn Tomb type consists of a wedge-shaped over 30.0 m long and about 15.0 m wide at the front, almost three meters high hill, which lies on a slight slope. The south-eastern, funnel-shaped forecourt shows a fossilized ammonite imprint in the left door post of the gallery. This stone has obviously been specially selected for this. The entrance is crowned by a huge fall . As with Belas Knap , the hill is framed by dry stone masonry that tapers low towards the end .

Restoration work ensured that visitors can visit the inside of the hill with the 16 m long gallery, in places just over a meter high. There are three side chambers on both sides of the gallery and the head chamber is at the end.

It is unknown how many dead were buried in the facility, which was opened in 1760 and subsequently looted. It was excavated in 1816, with a significant number of bones found and some cremation graves identified.

  • Stoney Littleton

  • Entry side

  • Interior entrance to Stoney Littleton Long Barrow.jpg
  • Interior of Stoney Littleton Long Barrow.jpg
  • Stoney Littleton Long Barrow (35987410634) .jpg
  • Stoney Littleton Long Barrow (36651112722) .jpg

See also

literature

  • JXWP Corcoran: The Cotswold-Severn Group: 1. Distribution, Morphology and Artifacts. In: Thomas George Eyre Powell , JXWP Corcoran, Frances Lynch, JG Scott: Megalithic Inquiries in the West of Britain . Liverpool University Press, Liverpool 1969, pp. 13-72, here p. 61.
  • Tim C. 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 (= Vorda Research Series. Vol. 5). Vorda, Highworth 1982, ISBN 0-907246-04-4 .
  • Timothy Darvill: Long barrows of the Cotswolds and surrounding areas. Tempus, Stroud 2004, ISBN 0-7524-2907-8 .

Web links

Coordinates: 51 ° 18 ′ 47.8 "  N , 2 ° 22 ′ 54.3"  W.