Avenue - Parallel line of standing stones or earth banks leading to a monument. . They were probably used for ceremonial processions.
Barrows - Barrows were introduced during the Beaker phase. They are a burial cist or grave covered with a mound of earth. They come in two styles; long barrows or round barrows.
Long Barrows - Rectangular mounds of earth and/or stones used for inhumations and cremation burials.
Round Barrows - A circular mound, which covers an inhumation or cremation burial. Also known as Tumuli. These come in several sub-types:
Bell Barrows - Circular mounds which have a flat platform, before the encircling ditch. They usually contain male burials.
Disc - A flat circular area, surrounded by both a ditch and a bank. A small tump of earth in the centre marks the position of the grave itself. They usually contain female burials.
Bowl Barrows - Circular mounds which are sometimes accompanied by a surrounding ditch.
Belgae Celts - See Celtic Cultures.
Causewayed Camps - A large Neolithic settlement or ceremonial site which may also have had a defensive use. A flat earth "platform" would be surrounded by concentric circles of banks and ditches, broken only by entrances. They are the earliest megalithic structures and about 40 are known in Britain.
Cell - A monastic enclave, which is dependent on its mother house.
Celtic Cultures - There are three recognised stages of Celtic culture. The first Halstatt, derives its name from Halstatt in Austria where a large Celtic cemetery of this period was found. The second stage of Celtic culture, La Tene (after a place in Switzerland where the remains of an Celtic settlement of this stage was found), showed that the Celts had increased in wealth and power, as their goods were increasingly better quality. The third group, the Belgae were more sophisticated than their predecessors and had a knowledge of coinage, ploughs and potting wheels for producing top quality pottery.
Cist - A grave formed of stone slabs set upright on their narrow sides, which are then topped with one or more cap stones.
Corbelling - Method of construction used for the roofs of some tombs. It involves laying stones in successive layers that each lean slightly into the centre so that they form a cone, They are then capped with a heavy slab of stone.
Cromlechs - See Portal Dolmen
Cruciform - In the shape of a cross.
Cursus - A long, linear enclosure formed by a parallel bank and/or ditch. They are thought to have been used for ceremonial processions, as like many megalithic monuments they are aligned with the midsummer sunrise. The spread of these monuments is quite extensive. Examples have been found as far apart as Norfolk and the Orkneys. Some of them run for miles across the landscape. The Dorset Cursus on Cranbourne Chase runs for six miles and is the longest known. The name comes from the Latin for racecourse, as early investigators of these monuments thought they were Roman structures used for Chariot Racing.
Grave Goods - Processions of the deceased buried with them in their tombs. Sometimes, in the case of a warrior, these would be weapons. Often they would be goods, such as food, that the person would need in the afterlife or on the journey there.
Halstatt Celts - See Celtic Cultures.
Henges - Large enclosures, circular in shape, sometimes including a stone circle, surrounded by bank and ditch earthworks.
Hill Figures - Giant figures of humans or animals, which are carved out of chalk hillsides in Southern England.
Hill Forts - These were, as the name suggests, fortified defensive settlements on the top of hills. They were chiefly occupied by the Iron Age Celtic tribes, but some sites had been in use since the Neolithic and some lasted well into the Roman period. The Celts updated the old wooden fortifications by digging out large earth ramparts, which often wound mazelike around the settlement to confuse the enemy.
Inhumation Burials - Burials where the whole body is inhumed in a tomb.
La Tene Celts - See Celtic Cultures.
Linear Earthwork - Large bank or ditch used for defence or as a boundary.
Long Barrows - See Barrows.
Magnetometry - This is a method of Geophysical Survey which allows archaeological detection of buried features without excavation. Readings are taken at regular points across a dig site. Disturbed earth and physical features such as walls give differing levels of magnetism. The survey allows a picture of features that would impossible to see above ground to be built up on a computer. The survey is then used to pinpoint areas of interest which can then been excavated more fully.
Megalith - See Standing Stone.
Menhir - See Standing Stone.
Monolith - See Standing Stone.
Moot Mound - These are natural or artificial hills on which meetings or rituals were held. There are many of these around the country and the name "toot" or "moot" has often been incorporated into local place names.
Mortuary House - Thought to be a building that would receive the bodies of the dead. They would then be laid out and left until the body became bones. These were then removed and interred or used in ceremonies.
Motte - The central defensive mound of an early Norman castle.
Passage Grave - A large mound of stones and earth covering a stone chamber approached through a long passage from the outside.
Portal Dolmen - Early Neolithic tombs built from three upright stones topped with a large cap stone. A burial would have been placed inside, then the whole structure would have been covered in earth.
Recumbent Stone - A Stone that has been deliberately lain flat lengthways to be used as a table or altar.
Round Barrows - See Barrows.
Souterrian - a small passage used as a hiding place.
Standing Stones - Either alone, in an avenue or stone circle, they comprise of a large stone deliberately erected in an upright position.
Stone Circles - A circle, simple or complex, created with standing stones arranged in a circle. Often they are associated with a bank and/or ditch (see henges). Their use would have been ceremonial.
Toot Mound - See Moot Mound.
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