Wayland’s Smithy Photos:
Also available as part of the Prehistoric Britain Greetings Cards Collection No. 1.
Wayland’s Smithy is an Early Neolithic chambered long barrow located near the village of Ashbury in the south-central English county of Oxfordshire. The barrow is believed to have been constructed about 3600 BC by pastoral communities shortly after the introduction of agriculture to the British Isles from continental Europe. Although part of an architectural tradition of long barrow building that was widespread across Neolithic Europe, Wayland’s Smithy belongs to a localised regional variant of barrows – found only in south-west of Britain – known as the Severn-Cotswold group. Wayland’s Smithy is one of the best surviving examples of this type of barrow.
‘The first structure on the site was an oval mound about 14m by 7m with a pair of flanking ditches. The mound was delimited by a stone kerb and at the southern end there was a timber chamber flanked at either end by massive D-shaped posts. The chamber was about 4.6m long and about 1m wide. On the floor were the disarticulated remains of at least 14 individuals, mainly adult males. Nothing of this early structure is visible today, because around 3500 BC a much larger barrow was constructed over the top, completely encapsulating it. This is the classic long barrow visible today.’
Text by Professor Tom Darvill.
