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The most impressive surviving evidence of
Neolithic man in Somerset is associated with the burial of some of the more
important members of their communities in the long barrows found in the north
eastern part of the county. These are elaborate stone structures, some still
covered with a pear-shaped mound of earth, which appear to have been
constructed late in the Neolithic period by new arrivals from the Atlantic
coast of Europe, who had developed considerable skill in moving and erecting
extremely large stones, called megaliths, as tombs or monuments.
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There is evidence from similar structures in
other counties that some form of religious ceremonial accompanied the burials.
The finest and best preserved of these communal graves is at Stoney Littleton,
near Wellow. It is 107 ft long and 54 ft wide at the widest part, and, though
probably originally much higher, is now 13 ft high. It has a passage way
nearly 50 ft long, with three small chambers opening out on either side, the
walls of which are constructed of large flat stone slabs set on edge. The
entrance has a huge flat stone set over it, but the remainder of the roof is
roughly corbelled. The barrow was damaged more than a century ago and the
contents of the graves removed, but it has been restored and is now protected
as an ancient monument. Several other barrows of this type survive only as a
few large stones, having suffered from the ignorance and vandalism of treasure
seekers or from having been used as quarries for stone.
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Map of long barrows, burial chambres and finds of New Stone Age artefacts in Somerset