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Bartlow Hills Page One

Originally there were seven conical-shaped burial mounds which stood in two parallel lines. All were constructed during the late first century through to the early second century AD. Mound number four at 45ft is the highest barrow in Britain, and the hills are the largest group of burial mounds in Northern Europe.

Six of the mounds were excavated during the early 19^th century, all were found to contain cremated human remains. However, many other skeletons were discovered during the later 19^th century when work began on the Great Eastern Railway – the line passing through two of the mounds no’s 6 & 7. There are no historical records from that period in existence which would help determine how the cemetery site was used in early times, though further burials have been discovered in Bartlow Park. It is possible that it was re used by the Anglo-Saxons, as a piece of 4^th century Anglo-Saxon pottery was found at the summit of the tallest mound which suggests that the barrows levels were raised higher during the Saxon period, possibly by the descendants of the mound occupants families in veneration of their ancestors, or possibly by the new Anglo-Saxon society out of respect for the dead.

Mystery surrounds the barrows occupants, they were probably the descendants of an Iron Age elite ruling class family, who made their fortune as merchants and traders in Britain during the new Roman rule. It appears that they travelled back and forth across the channel quite frequently as most grave items were imported from the Rhineland and Northern Gaul regions, and these are the only other areas apart from Eastern England where similar burials of this type have been found.

At least five of the mounds contained a cremated body inside a glass urn, which in turn had been placed within a locked wooden chest bound with iron, except for the sixth mound where a brick built cist (stone chest/coffin) housed the funerary vessel.

All six mounds contained lamps made from iron or bronze, which were left burning as each tomb was sealed. Further examination of each of the lamps contents revealed all had a partly burnt wick in situ within an unknown white fatty substance which had been used as fuel.

Grave goods consisted of numerous decorative exotic vessels made from pottery, bronze and glass, most vessels contained quantities of food and drink, a burial practice associated with feasting and the afterlife.

The artifacts buried with the dead are as follows: various samian tableware sets, cups, and items of clear and coloured glass such as; phials and bottles, ornately decorated bronze, glass, and pottery wine flagons, and patera, plus an elaborately enamelled miniature cauldron of bronze, strigils, and a single amphora (large storage jar).

Some artifacts were in a perfect state of preservation due to the ideal conditions inside the burial chambers. The chalk mounds (alkaline soil) created a dry airtight atmosphere which meant that organic objects which would have normally perished survived. These additional grave items were listed as follows; A folding iron chair with a seat of leather straps (almost identical to the one found with the Lexdon Barrow burial, Colchester), plus a gold signet ring are a sign of official rank, a wooden tankard, a piece of sponge, a wickerwork bottle, a wreath of box leaves, flower (rose) petals, together with a vessel containing a fragrant incense which could have been either frankincense, or perhaps myrrh.

A high proportion of the accompanying vessels also contained liquids of various types, one particular substance when analysed by scientists was identified as being a curious mixture of wine, milk, blood, and honey. Michael Faraday the pioneer of electricity was one of the leading scientists of the day who helped to analyse the liquids, and organic contents of the vessels.

Unfortunately the most important artefacts were completely destroyed during a fire at Eastern Lodge, Great Dunmow, Essex in 1847, though a collection of  items (of lesser value) from the first excavations (in 1812) have survived and are on display at Alnwick Museum, Northumbria, except for three small objects which can be found in Saffron Walden Museum, Essex.

The Roman villa excavated at Bartlow seems "too humble a building", to have been the residence of a wealthy and powerful ruling class family, historians tend to favour the wealthier villa sites of Ashdon, and Linton, especially as both are within a one mile radius of the Bartlow burial mounds site.

Excavations of the villa site indicate that the first Bartlow villa was a very humble building about 20m wide with walls of flint and chalk with a decorative painted plaster type finish, with a hypocaust and a well (depth 10m) All later buildings in contrast to the earliest building on the site were of inferior workmanship. Investigations revealed that the site was in use for a long period as finds date from the early 2^nd century right through to the 4^th century AD.

The later discoveries of coin moulds and lumps of bronze at the site suggests the area was commercially important during the Roman period, this evidence has shown that not all coins were minted in Rome (as previously thought) some were actually produced locally.

Other almost identical examples of folding chairs have been found at Lexden, St Albans (formerly Verulamium, Holborough Knob, Bulgaria and Belgium. These types of folding chairs were high status items as the chairs were only used for ceremonial purposes – by high ranking civilian and military officers.

It seems that the Bartlow mound IV occupant was indeed a high ranking officer, and the grave contents buried with the individual family members showed that although the family had followed a somewhat lavish "Roman lifestyle", their consequent wealth and power gave them the advantageous choice to continue following their Iron Age traditions through life as well as in death.

All four mounds had become so badly overgrown that in 1978 they were taken under the guardianship of Essex County Council, and the scrub was cleared, and fences were erected to protect the mounds. In 1990 the County boundaries were changed and the Bartlow Hills (an ancient scheduled monument owned by the trustees of Bartlow Estate) are now under the guardianship of Cambridgeshire County Council.