Feature Assessment: Cultural landscapes / Prehistoric burial mounds and ceremonial monuments
# Prehistoric burial mounds and ceremonial monuments
Overall vulnerability |
# Feature(s) assessed:
- Neolithic burial mounds - chambered cairn and long barrows
- Bronze Age burial mounds - barrows and cairns
- Stone circles
- Henges
# Special qualities:
- Landscapes that tell a story of thousands of years of people, farming and industry
# Feature description:
This assessment focuses on Neolithic and Bronze Age burial features. However, many of the potential effects of climate change discussed will apply equally to other prehistoric ceremonial monument types such as henges.
There are currently 34 Neolithic and 238 Bronze Age burial mounds mapped in the PDNP, although the origins of a number of these are unclear and there are many more undated sites. Neolithic chambered cairns typically consist of one or more stone chambers, covered by a mound of stones, into which human remains were placed.
Long barrows are almost always Neolithic in origin and typically consist of a long, roughly rectangular mound of soil or stone containing chambers for the ritual placement of human remains and other grave goods. Although, sometimes only the internal stone chamber survives. They are often located in prominent positions within the landscape.
Bronze Age barrows and cairns consist of a mound of earth or stones covering a central burial place, and there are numerous types and configurations to be found in the PDNP.
Gib Hill, adjacent to the Arbor Low henge in the White Peak is an important example of a Neolithic long barrow. At this site a round barrow was later added to the feature during the Bronze Age. The PDNP is home to several unusual sites with complex history such as the 210-metre-long Long Low site near Wetton.
The features types assessed here are all historically significant, and the PDNP contains some nationally rare and important examples. Collectively they show evidence of settlements and give some insight into how past ceremonies and rituals may have influenced modern day activities.
How vulnerable are prehistoric burial mounds and ceremonial monuments?
Prehistoric burial mounds and ceremonial monuments in the PDNP have been rated ‘high’ on our vulnerability scale. This score is due to high sensitivity and exposure to climate change, a variable current condition and a moderate adaptive capacity.
Prehistoric burial mounds and ceremonial monuments are in a vulnerable condition, with only half of those known intact. Climate change has the potential to accelerate damage to those structures remaining. Increased damage and attrition rates caused by expansion and contraction of stone and soil structures have the potential to play a role in the collapse of internal chambers. Increased visitor numbers in the PDNP, burrowing animals and future changes to farming practices may be some of the most important climate driven factors to impact these features. These features are an irreplaceable and finite resource, susceptible to damage and loss. However appropriate protections and management should be able to at least partially offset the impacts of climate change. Neolithic sites are likely to be the most vulnerable as an overall resource due to their rarity, while unscheduled and unknown sites will be vulnerable because appropriate management actions are less likely to be put in place.
Overall potential impact rating | |
Overall adaptive capacity rating |
# Current condition:
Of the Neolithic burial mounds mapped in the PDNP, approximately half appear to be intact with the rest either being disturbed or reduced, and around 10% completely destroyed or removed. Information is scarce about those that are mutilated or badly cratered, and many of these will have undergone antiquarian excavations, which were poorly documented.
Nationally, many scheduled ancient monuments are at risk from arable agriculture associated with ploughing and are in declining condition. The predominately pastoral landscape means that to date this has been less of a problem in the PDNP. However, it is likely that some features are impacted by damage from plant growth or burrowing animals. The Heritage at Risk Register notes evidence of extensive badger burrowing in a bowl barrow in the Staffordshire Moorlands causing its condition to be classed as 'generally unsatisfactory with major localised problems'. It is very likely that other monuments in the PDNP face similar risks.