SNN111724 - The Brumut Hills: Two Neolithic long barrows near Flore

Two Neolithic long barrows of the Cotswold-Severn type were confirmed by geophysical and trial trench investigation, supported by fieldwalking, to the north of Flore, Northamptonshire. Each long barrow comprises substantial parallel ditches cut into the natural limestone rock. The ditch fills indicate that material extracted from these paired ditches was used to raise long mounds between them and possibly to form stone revetments, The sequence within the ditch fills show the abandonment, the degradation of the limestone mound and gradual silting of the ditches. Within the deposits were faunal remains, which included an aurochs, pottery sherds and plant macrofossils that provided a source for dating the process of deposition. Radiocarbon dates suggest that the southern long barrow was built earlier in the Neolithic than its northern counterpart and that the process of ditch silting continued into the Middle Bronze Age; after which the ditches were no longer visible at ground level as earthworks. Small to moderate collections of both pottery and flint were recovered and have helped to date their use and disuse. The remnant mounds were eventually ploughed out, and furrows crossing the top of the former long barrows derived from medieval and early post-medieval agriculture prior to the Enclosure Act of 1779.