Belas Knap, Gloucestershire: Chambered Tomb From 3800 BC

Belas Knap in Gloucestershire is a chambered tomb dating from about 3800 BC.

Belas Knap is a particularly fine example of a Neolithic long barrow, with a false entrance and side chambers.

31 skeletons were discovered in the tomb, and these and other artefacts can be seen in the village folk museum in Winchcombe.

Long barrows – elongated stone monuments to the dead – belong to the oldest surviving architectural tradition in England.

Between 3800 BC and 3500 BC almost every community in the Cotswold–Severn area built one.

Today, more than 150 survive.

Extending up to 100 metres from end to end and 20 metres across, these mounds are impressive structures, even in the modern landscape.

At Belas Knap the impressive entrance is a dummy and the burial chambers are entered from the sides of the barrow – when closed and covered by earth they would have been invisible from the outside.

It was probably constructed around 3000 BC and was used for successive burials over a period of years until eventually the burial chambers were deliberately blocked.

Opinion differs as to the reason for the false portal. It may have been to deter robbers, although little in the way of value has been found in undisturbed tomb chambers.

Alternatively, it could be that the false entrance functioned as a ‘spirit door’, intended to allow the dead to come and go and partake of offerings brought to the tomb by their descendants.

Although Belas Knap seems in good condition, this is the result of several restorations.

Romano-British pottery found inside one of the burial chambers show that it was open in Roman times.

It was explored between 1863 and 1865 using the archaeological methods of the time, and some years later was restored by Mrs Emma Dent of Sudeley.

In 1928–30 the site was excavated again, before being restored as we see it today.

During the 19th-century excavations, the false entrance was found to cover the remains of six skeletons, including five infants, which are thought to be early Bronze Age interments.

The south-eastern chamber contained the remains of two males and two females along with animal bones and flint artefacts.

The north-eastern chamber contained twelve burials, the western chamber fourteen, and the southern chamber just one.

The excavators also reported finding a circle of flat stones beneath the centre of the mound, though these were later removed.

How long barrows were used

How long barrows were used varied a little between communities.

A common theme is that the chambers contain the broken-up remains of between five and 50 individuals – men, women and children of all ages.

Grave goods were few – just the occasional pot and selected personal ornaments.

But careful excavation suggests that these barrows were opened from time to time for the addition of corpses and parts of bodies that had been stored or buried elsewhere.

As the number increased it became necessary to make room for new additions by moving the remains of earlier depositions deeper into the chamber.

It must have been an emotionally charged, uncomfortable experience, squeezing into the narrow spaces, moving bones about, and manoeuvring bodies into their new resting places.

Perhaps the barrows were opened at auspicious times of the year, when the boundaries between the worlds of the living and the dead were understood to be at their most permeable.

Someone who recently visited Belas Kanp said: “Trekked up the hill to Belas Knapp and had the entire hilltop to myself. Surprised a weasel living in the stone wall. Beautiful 360 views.

”Imagined hauling and placing all the megaliths into their places. And what this place has witnessed across 5000 years. Crawl into the tomb passages if you can squeeze through.

”The site is free. There are no facilities. Bring water, especially if you are hiking from town. The car park is a small pull off the road.”

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