Stoney Littleton Long Barrow
Bath Long Barrow · Wellow Barrow
Early Neolithic (~3750 BCE)·Cotswold-Severn Neolithic·🇬🇧 Somerset, England, United Kingdom
About
About Stoney Littleton Long Barrow
One of Somerset's finest Severn-Cotswold tombs extending 30 m with a distinctive trapezoidal mound and seven lateral chambers opening from a central passage. A 6-tonne limestone left door is naturally perforated with a fossil ammonite – likely the symbolic 'spirit hole'. Excavated by John Skinner in 1816, it yielded at least 28 inhumations; the forecourt horns frame a 7-m façade. It bridges Wessex and Cotswold architectural provinces.
Why it mattersOne of Somerset's finest Severn-Cotswold tombs extending 30 m with a distinctive trapezoidal mound and seven lateral chambers opening from a central passage. A 6-tonne limestone left door is naturally
Open questions
Mysteries & theories
Mysteries
- 01Ammonite perforation – opportunistic natural hole reframed as passage for souls
- 02Multiple side chambers with successive deposits – lineage segmentation?
Theories
- 01Cotswold-Severn territorial marker at the head of the Wellow valley guiding Neolithic expansion
- 02Fossil as apotropaic totem linking death and deep time
Theories are interpretations, not findings. The seal above tells you how much scholarly weight the place carries.
History
How it came to be
- Built
- c.3750 BCE (primary chambers)
- Period
- Early Neolithic (~3750 BCE)
- Culture
- Cotswold-Severn Neolithic
- Purpose
- Cotswold-Severn transepted chambered long barrow with 7 side chambers and fossil ammonite door
- Excavation
- Excavated
c.3750 BCE (primary chambers)
Initial construction
c. 1269 CE
Rediscovery
On the ground
Structures & features
51.3117° N · 2.3808° W · 170 m · 2 mapped features
Central Passage and Fossil Door
chamber7-chamber transepted passage with ammonite-perforated portal stone
51.3117° N · 2.3808° WForethcourt Horns
earthworkLimestone-revetted horned forecourt façade
51.3119° N · 2.3810° W