Abowl barrow is a type ofburial mound ortumulus. A barrow is a mound of earth used to cover a tomb. The bowl barrow gets its name from its resemblance to an upturned bowl. Related terms includecairn circle,cairn ring,howe,kerb cairn,tump androtunda grave.[1]
Bowl barrows were created from theNeolithic through to theBronze Age inGreat Britain. A bowl barrow is an approximately hemispherical mound covering one or moreInhumations orcremations. Where the mound is composed entirely of stone, rather than earth, the termcairn replaces the word barrow. The mound may be simply a mass of earth or stone, or it may be structured by concentric rings of posts, low stone walls, or upright stone slabs. In addition, the mound may have akerb of stones or wooden posts.
Barrows were usually built in isolation in various situations on plains, valleys and hill slopes, although the most popular sites were those on hilltops. Bowl barrows were first identified inGreat Britain byJohn Thurnam (1810–73), an Englishpsychiatrist,archaeologist, andethnologist.
English Heritage proposed the following classification of British bowl barrows:
Tump isWorcestershiredialect term for a small hill, such as a barrow, even a large barrow such as the Whittington Tump in the village ofWhittington south east of Worcester, or an "unty tump" meaning mole hill (unty being Worcestershire dialect for amole). It is related to theWelsh language termTwmpath which was once applied to the mound or village green. From a shortlist of tumps, it can be seen that the term is used extensively in theWelsh Marches and its use extends beyond that, toSomerset,Wiltshire,Oxfordshire, andBuckinghamshire.
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