The Excavation of the Bee Low Round Cairn, Youlgreave, Derbyshire

Barry M. Marsden

doi:10.1017/S0003581500031887

The Excavation of the Bee Low Round Cairn, Youlgreave, Derbyshire

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 29 November 2011

Barry M. Marsden

Article contents

Summary
References

Get access

Rights & Permissions

Summary

There has been little investigation into the beaker period in the Derbyshire Peak District since Thomas Bateman's activities between 1843–60. This paper describes the excavation, between 1966–8, of Bee Low, a beaker round cairn imperfectly examined by Bateman in 1843 and 1851. The excavation produced evidence of almost continuous usage of the mound by beaker and later communities over a period of some 300 years. The earliest burials (c. 1700 B.C.) were a collective group of six or more inhumations in a stone cist with an All-Over-Cord beaker, a pottery type hitherto unrepresented in the Peak. In all, twenty-three inhumations and five cremations were recorded from the cairn, with further beakers of types N2 (Developed Northern), S2 (Developed Southern), and S4 (Final Southern), the last a further type not previously recorded with certainty in beaker contexts in the area. Burial customs included collective, crouched, and disarticulated interment. Only one inhumation had a metal association—a bronze awl—but two cremations were provided with bronzes, an awl and a small riveted knife. The excavation of this miniature necropolis has added considerably to present knowledge of the Late Neolithic/Early Bronze Age cultures of the Peak.

Type: Research Article
Information: The Antiquaries Journal , Volume 50 , Issue 2 , September 1970 , pp. 186 - 215

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0003581500031887 [Opens in a new window]
Copyright: Copyright © The Society of Antiquaries of London 1970

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

^{page 186 note 1} Bateman (1848), 103; (1861), 93.

^{page 186 note 2} P.P.S. xix (1953), 229Google Scholar.

^{page 187 note 1} Bateman (1861), 71.

^{page 188 note 1} See also Bateman (1861), 58.

^{page 188 note 2} For instance, Pennington (1877), 17 and A.N.L., v, 134.

^{page 191 note 1} Bateman (1861), 147.

^{page 191 note 2} Mouse Low (Bateman (1861) 113), Gospel Hillocks (Rel. viii (1867), 85), and Hazlebadge.

^{page 194 note 1} Ant. J. xiv (1934), 56.

^{page 194 note 2} See D.A.J. lxxxiii (1963), 82Google Scholar.

^{page 194 note 3} Bateman (1861), 77.

^{page 195 note 1} P.P.S. xix (1953), 229Google Scholar.

^{page 195 note 2} D.A.J. lxxvi (1956), 57Google Scholar.

^{page 195 note 3} Bateman (1861), 57.

^{page 195 note 4} A.N.L. v (1953), 134Google Scholar.

^{page 196 note 1} Pennington (1877), 14.

^{page 196 note 2} Bateman (1848), 52, 55, 104 and (1861),41, 42, etc.

^{page 196 note 3} Bateman (1848), 69; Mortimer, 229.

^{page 196 note 4} Bateman (1861), 147.

^{page 196 note 5} S4 sherds found at Hay Top cairn.

^{page 197 note 1} Bateman (1848), 49.

^{page 197 note 2} D.A.J. lxxxvi (1966), 31ffGoogle Scholar.

^{page 197 note 3} Bateman (1861), 37.

^{page 197 note 4} Bateman (1861), 37; Pennington (1877), 14.

^{page 197 note 5} Inf. Major T. A. Harris.

^{page 197 note 6} Rel, iii (1862–3), 165 ff.

^{page 198 note 1} Bateman (1848), 103; (1861), 93.

^{page 198 note 2} Bateman (1848), 47; (1861), 104.

^{page 198 note 3} P.P.S. xix(1953), 229.

^{page 198 note 4} D.A.J. lxxxiv (1964), 107Google Scholar.

^{page 198 note 5} Bateman (1848), 98.

^{page 198 note 6} Bateman (1861), 43.

^{page 198 note 7} Bateman (1848), 82.

^{page 198 note 8} D.A.J. lxxv (1955), 91Google Scholar ff.

^{page 198 note 9} Known only from water-colour drawings in Jewitts ‘Illustrations of Antiquity’ (Sheffield Museum). These sherds strongly resemble part of the rim of a Mortlake bowl.

^{page 199 note 1} For instance, Stoney Low (Bateman(1848), 46) and Long Low ((1861), 144) which are true megalithic monuments on evidence of size and contents, and Hob Hurst's House ((1861), 87) surely EBA in date.

^{page 199 note 2} T.L.C.A.S. 71 (1961), 1Google Scholar ff.

^{page 199 note 3} Ashbee, P., Bronze Age Round Barrotu in Britain (1960), 152Google Scholar.

^{page 199 note 4} Clarke (1970).

^{page 199 note 5} E.M.A.B. 7 (1964), 1–2Google Scholar.

^{page 199 note 6} Ibid. 2.

^{page 199 note 7} Bateman (1848), 41.

^{page 200 note 1} e.g. Bateman (1848), 59; (1861), 102, 106, 113. See also Clarke (1970), 203.

^{page 200 note 2} D.A.J. lxxx (1960), 1Google Scholar ff.

^{page 200 note 3} D.A.J. Ixxxvii (1966), 31 ffGoogle Scholar.

^{page 200 note 4} T.L.C.A.S. loc. cit.

^{page 200 note 5} c.g. Baslow (HAS index), Fin Cop (inf. T. A. Harris), Harland Edge (D.A.J. loc. Cit), and Bateman (1848), 78.

^{page 200 note 6} P.P.S. xxvii (1961), 283.

^{page 200 note 7} e.g. D.A.J. li (1930), 1 ff.; lx (1939), iii ; Bateman (1848), 61, 97; (1861), 77; Bagshawe MSS. (SM); Pennington (1877), 30. Also verbal information from J. Radley concerning a site on Raven's Tor, Beeley.

^{page 201 note 1} Hazlebadge (Bagshawe MSS.); Bateman (1861), 74.

^{page 201 note 2} Clarke (1970), 52.

^{page 201 note 3} P.P.S. xxvii (1961), 273 ff.

^{page 202 note 1} P.P.S. xxvii (1961), 263Google Scholar.

^{page 203 note 1} Ibid., figs. 10 (232), 11 (184), 12 (250).

^{page 204 note 1} Clarke (1970), 402, 403, 406, 409.

Article contents

The Excavation of the Bee Low Round Cairn, Youlgreave, Derbyshire

Summary

Access options

References

Save article to Kindle

Save article to Dropbox

Save article to Google Drive

Reply to: Submit a response

Your details

You have entered the maximum number of contributors

Conflicting interests