The Barleycroft Screens - A Ceremonial Complex

In 1999, a series of extraordinary timber post lines were discovered in the low ground below the Butcher's Rise on the Barleycroft side of the river. With their posts set 0.50-1.00m apart, these were each c. 80-130m long. They were laid out to form a series of 'screens', their posts not being set close enough to form any kind of defensive barrier. Equally, the area their lines delineated was not closed on all sides so they could not have served to corral stock.

Whilst their function is not obvious, they seem formal in their layout and the ends of some had distinct 'T'-shaped settings. Within the main north-south line there was a 24m wide 'interruption'. Defined by such 'T' ends, both a four-square and two-post settings were found to equidistantly sub-divide this gap - and there can be no doubt that this was some kind of entranceway into the screened area.

At one point cremated human bone was found in association with one of the post lines. Taking the evidence together there can be little doubt that the role of the settings was ceremonial. In this their situation is crucial, falling between the Butcher's Rise ring-ditches and the main round barrow group across the river channel opposite and where in 2001 the great sub-circular enclosure was also discovered. The role of the 'screens' seems essentially to have been to funnel the movement of people - presumably assembled here in large gatherings - and also to frame their field of vision, directing it to the main barrow cemetery ('the place of the ancestors'). Thereby interrelating the ring-ditch and round barrow funerary monuments, the timber screens seem part of an enormous ceremonial complex, whose diverse components extended over more than 2km.