Europe, British Isles, South-West England, Wiltshire, Alton Barnes
Alton Barnes, Wiltshire is in Wiltshire.
Europe, British Isles, South-West England, Wiltshire, Alton Barnes, Adam's Grave [Map]
Adam's Grave is also in Avebury Long Barrows South.
Adam's Grave [Map] is a Severn Cotswolds type chambered. The chamber was made of sarsen stones. It contained partial human skeletons. An leaf shaped arrowhead was also recovered. The tomb was 70m long, around 7m high with ditches on either side. It was partially excavated by John Thurnam in 1860.
Adam's Grave [Map] Historic England Entry:
The monument includes Adam's Grave, a long barrow set on a promontory above a steep south-facing escarpment. It survives as a substantial earthwork orientated NW-SE and is trapezoid in plan. The barrow mound is 70m long, c.7m high and survives to an average width of 20m. Flanking ditches, from which material used to construct the mound was quarried, run parallel to the north and south sides of the mound. These are 7m wide and up to 2m deep. The south-east end of the monument was partially excavated by Thurnham in 1860. Finds included part of a chamber formed from large sarsen stones, traces of human skeletons and a leaf shaped arrowhead. Numerous other long barrows are known in the area while a broadly contemporary enclosure at Knap Hill [Map] is situated on an neighbouring promontory.
It is a curious fact that Five Wells Chambered Tomb [Map] is, within 0.2 of a degree of longitude, north of Stonehenge [Map] - see Five Wells Chambered Tomb and Stonehenge Alignment. Moreover, this line of longitude, give or take 500m, has the highest number of Neolithic and Early Bronze Age Monuments on it when compared to other lines of longitude. North to South:
Five Wells Chambered Tomb [Map]
Monkton Fields Long Barrow [Map]
Adam's Grave [Map]
Netheravon 6 Long Barrow [Map]
In 584 Ceawlin King Wessex was defeated, probably by the Britons, possibly by Ceol King Wessex at the First Battle of Woden's Barrow which fought at Adam's Grave [Map], Pewsey, Wiltshire.
In 715 Ceolred King Mercia and King Ine of Wessex (age 45) were defeated by an unknown army during the 715 Battle of Wanborough at Adam's Grave [Map].
Diary of a Dean by Merewether. 04 Aug 1849. Saturday, the 4th of August, was in the morning chiefly devoted to Silbury [Map]; and it was arranged that I should be left in charge, as the examination of the centre was every hour becoming more and more critical and interesting. After due consultation respecting Silbury, our steps were directed to a singularly interesting object, described as an Archdruid's barrow [West Kennet long barrow [Map]], lying three quarters of a mile south-east of Silbury Hill [Map]. This appellation I suppose has been adopted from Stukeley; it ranges about east and west, and is at least 150 ft. long, higher and broader at the east end, where it is 30 ft., than at the west. It had evidently been cut through on the ridge in several places, but not improbably, in most instances, merely for agricultural purposes. At the east end were lying, in a dislodged condition, at least 30 sarsen stones, in which might clearly be traced the chamber formed by the side uprights and large transom stones, and the similar but lower and smaller passage leading to it; and below, round the base of the east end, wre to be seen the portion of the circle or semicircle of stones bounding it. There are two other barrows of this kind in the neighbourhood, which I may mention in this place; the one [East Kennet Long Barrow [Map]] about three-quarters of a mile south-east of that just described, which is of much the same character as to shape and dimensions, but differs in construction. I was induced to visit this in consequence of having been informed by the occupier of the surrounding land, that he had caused a hole to be dug at the east end for the purpose of obtaining flints; but that he soon found that it was made up of round and generally flat sarsen stones, which came tumbling so about the men that they gave up the work. It has unfortunately been planted over, as have many of the larger barrows on Hacpen Hill; I think in bad taste. The other is situated on Alton Down [Adam's Grave [Map]?], south of Wansdyke: all these range in the same bearing, south-east by north-west. It is 130 ft. long by 30 high. This is still covered with turf, and has been opened about half-way along the ridge, but not effectually. It is remarkable for having, about half-way down the slope of the east end, a sarsen stone; another at the base in the centre. On the south side, in the trench formed by raising the mound, is a very curious earthwork, in form an oval, with a mound about 2 ft. high round it, and a sarsen stone in the centre; the whole about 40 feet long by 15 broad. In advance of the barrow eastward, and at its very base, is another earthwork, of similar height as to its mound, in a line at right angles with the central line, about 30 ft. long, with a return of 10 ft. on either side. These two curious objects I visited at so late a period of my Wiltshire sojourn, that I could not indulge in the gratification of examining them. It is a satisfaction to mention these three, in the hope that it may lead to the disclosure of their interesting contents at some future day.
Wiltshire Archaeological Magazine 1868 V11 Pages 40-49. I have been somewhat particular in the description of the objects figured above, and of the barrow whence they were obtained, in order to distinguish them from some small and extremely delicate leaf-shaped arrow-heads of flint, which I have in several instances found in long barrows, properly so called, which seem to me to merit the name of the "long-barrow type of arrow-head" and as to which I will now offer some remarks.
In the summer of 1860 I made an excavation in a very large long barrow [Adam's Grave [Map]] on Walker's Hill, Alton Down, North Wilts. The barrow appears to have been a chambered one, and had been surrounded by an enclosing wall, as described in the Archaeologia.1 Among the debris of the ruined chamber, near the east end, I picked up the flint arrow-head by which my attention was first directed to the subject before us. This relic in its present state, measures about 1½ in. in length, and 8/10 of an inch in breadth. It is of a leaf-shape, delicately chipped at the edges and on both surfaces to a surprising tenuity, and weighs only thirty grains. Both points of this arrow-head were broken off when found, the fractures being evidently ancient. The total length when perfect must have been 1·8 inches, or 46 millimetres.
Note 1. Vol. xxxviii., p. 410. Salisbury vol. of Arch. Institute, 1849, p. 98. By the peasantry of the neighbourhood this barrow is known as "Old Adam [Map]," (meaning Adam's grave [Map]), and one of the stones at its base as "Little Eve." It is a conspicuous object in plate 2 of Hoare's Ancient Wilts, vol. ii., p. 8. The hill, corruptly named "Walker's Hill" on the Ordnance Map, is by the shepherds more properly called Walcway Hill. It is crossed by the ancient British ridge-way (continuation of the Icknield), — the Weala-wego or Welsh-way of an Anglo-Saxon charter in the Codex Winton (Alton Priors), See Jones's Domesday for Wiltshire, 1865, p. xxvii.
Wiltshire Archaeological Magazine 1913 V38 Pages 379-414. Alton Priors. 1 [Map]. 1 "Adam's Grave," or "Old Adam," on Walker's Hill. Length 130ft. ( Merewether); S.E. and N. W. Chambered. Opened by Thurnam in 1860. Near the east end there was a single chamber built of large sarsen stones; it had been previously disturbed, and he only found traces of human skeletons, and a finely worked leaf-shaped arrowhead of flint. There seems to have been a containing wall round the mound, of which remains were found near the eastern end, built of upright sarsen stones set a little distance apart, with the space between filled in with a dry walling of oolitic stones.2
This large and finely situated barrow has been a good deal disfigured by the various excavations in it, and several of the large sarsens discovered by Thurnam are partly exposed. The ditches on both sides are still quite distinct, but that on the north has been somewhat encroached upon by a chalk quarry. The damage in this direction is, however, not likely to be continued, attention having been called to it. The central ridge of the mound is still unusually sharp, a feature commented on by Hoare. Proc. Arch. Inst. Salisbury, p. 98; Smith p. 181, XII H. viii. a; O.M. 35, SW.; A. W. II. 12, 29; Arch. xxxviii. 410 i.; xlii. 203, 230; W.A.M. xi. 45.
Note 1. Referred to by Thurnam as "Walker Hill"
Note 2. The oolitic stone is foreign to this immediate locality. The same kind of walling with oolitic stone was found at West Kennet. See under Avebury.
Europe, British Isles, South-West England, Wiltshire, Alton Barnes, Knap Hill Barrow 1 [Map]
Knap Hill Barrow 1 is also in Avebury Bronze Age Barrows.
Wiltshire Archaeological Magazine 1859 V6 Pages 317-336. 11. A small barrow, under cultivation, somewhat more to the west and not more than a foot in height, presented no trace of interment, after careful investigation
To the east of Walker's Hill is Knap Hill [Map], having on its summit a small defensive earthwork or camp. At the foot of this, (close to the road to Kennet, and to the line of the old British trackway which stretches by Avebury into Berkshire) are two defaced barrows [Knap Hill Barrow 1 [Map] and Knap Hill Barrow 2 [Map]] connected by a dyke, extending sixty yards east and
19. To the south of the eastern mound, is a small low barrow not two feet in height. In digging into it, a few pieces of burnt bone were found, and near the centre, the carelessly buried skeleton of an infant. On the west side of the barrow, in a narrow cist in the chalk, more than six feet long, was the skeleton of an adult female of large stature, stretched at length, the feet to the east, as in Christian cemeteries at the present day;
"Mindful of Him who in the orient born
There lived, and on the cross His life resigned;
And who from out the regions of the morn
Issuing in pomp shall come to judge mankind."1
Note 1. Wordsworth, it is true, here alludes to the orientation of churches; but there can be no doubt that similar views have determined the position of the dead in Christian cemeteries. The great mediaeval ritualist, Durandus, thus writes: "Debet autem quis sic sepeliri ut, capite ad occidentem posito, pedes dirigat ad orientem: in quo quasi ipsa positione orat et innuit quod, promptus est ut de occasu festinet ad ortum." De Divinis Officiis: quoted by Abbe Cochet, Arch. vol. xxxvi. p. 261
Europe, British Isles, South-West England, Wiltshire, Alton Barnes, Knap Hill Barrow 2 [Map]
Knap Hill Barrow 2 is also in Avebury Bronze Age Barrows.
Wiltshire Archaeological Magazine 1859 V6 Pages 317-336. 11. A small barrow, under cultivation, somewhat more to the west and not more than a foot in height, presented no trace of interment, after careful investigation
To the east of Walker's Hill is Knap Hill [Map], having on its summit a small defensive earthwork or camp. At the foot of this, (close to the road to Kennet, and to the line of the old British trackway which stretches by Avebury into Berkshire) are two defaced barrows [Knap Hill Barrow 1 [Map] and Knap Hill Barrow 2 [Map]] connected by a dyke, extending sixty yards east and
19. To the south of the eastern mound, is a small low barrow not two feet in height. In digging into it, a few pieces of burnt bone were found, and near the centre, the carelessly buried skeleton of an infant. On the west side of the barrow, in a narrow cist in the chalk, more than six feet long, was the skeleton of an adult female of large stature, stretched at length, the feet to the east, as in Christian cemeteries at the present day;
"Mindful of Him who in the orient born
There lived, and on the cross His life resigned;
And who from out the regions of the morn
Issuing in pomp shall come to judge mankind."1
Note 1. Wordsworth, it is true, here alludes to the orientation of churches; but there can be no doubt that similar views have determined the position of the dead in Christian cemeteries. The great mediaeval ritualist, Durandus, thus writes: "Debet autem quis sic sepeliri ut, capite ad occidentem posito, pedes dirigat ad orientem: in quo quasi ipsa positione orat et innuit quod, promptus est ut de occasu festinet ad ortum." De Divinis Officiis: quoted by Abbe Cochet, Arch. vol. xxxvi. p. 261
Europe, British Isles, South-West England, Wiltshire, Alton Barnes, Knap Hill Barrow 3 [Map]
Knap Hill Barrow 3 is also in Avebury Bronze Age Barrows.
Wiltshire Archaeological Magazine 1859 V6 Pages 317-336. 20. This last, to the south-west of the earthwork, is not more than a foot high. An opening, of at least three yards square, was made in the centre; but excepting some animal bones near the summit, nothing was found after a most careful search.
21. The simple bowl barrow at the west end of the camp [Knap Hill Barrow 3 [Map]], is about two feet high and surrounded by a slight trench. Near the summit, were a few bones of a sheep and perhaps other ruminants, such as are commonly found in this position in the barrows of Wiltshire: they are probably the relics of funeral feasts or of sacrifices over the graves. In the centre, was a circular cist in the chalk rock, two feet in diameter and two feet deep, nearly full of ashes and burnt bones, but without any other relic. At the east end of the camp, the ground has been much disturbed by digging for flints, and no trace of any barrow remains.