Long Barrows Project Update

Work is now well underway on the Lincolnshire Neolithic Long Barrows assessment project. Since the project started earlier this year, we have made an initial assessment of some 40 sites where long barrows are known and mapped from aerial photographs. APS are now carrying out a programme of geophysical surveys to help determine the presence and survival of the buried remains. In a few cases the geophysics results will be tested by small scale trench excavation. The image shows one of the barrow ditches revealed at one of the sites in the Lincolnshire Wolds.

Part of the research programme will consider the impact of intensive cultivation on these sites to help inform management decisions and enable protection in the future. This project ties in to Historic England’s recently published Heritage at Risk Survey for 2017; the national picture reflects the fact that in terms of archaeological sites, ‘arable cultivation and unrestricted plant, scrub and tree growth remain the most common sources of risk’.