Hazleton long barrows explained

Hazleton long barrows, known as Hazleton North and Hazleton South, are the remains of Neolithic barrows or cairns of the Cotswold-Severn Group, located close to the village of Hazleton in Gloucestershire, South West England.

Archaeology

Hazleton North was excavated over several years, from 1979 to 1982, under the direction of Alan Saville. The barrow was completely excavated, so all that remains of it are the now backfilled and below-ground quarry pits on the northern and southern sides of the barrow. In 2020 one of the Hazleton North burial chambers, built of limestone orthostats, was reconstructed as a new display at Corinium Museum in Cirencester.

In 2021, archaeologists from the universities of Newcastle, Central Lancashire, Exeter and York, and geneticists from the universities of Harvard, Vienna, and the Basque country published the results of the examination of the bones and teeth of 35 people buried in Hazleton North. The research team discovered that 27 were biological relatives from five continuous generations of a single extended family.

See also

• Cotswold-Severn Group of long barrows
• List of long barrows in the United Kingdom

Sources

• Saville . Alan . Gowlett . John A.J. . Hedges . Robert E.M. . March 1987 . Radiocarbon dates from the chambered tomb at Hazleton (Glos.): A chronology for Neolithic collective burial . . 61 . 231 . 108–119. 10.1017/S0003598X0007263X . 133180171 .
• Alan . Saville . 1990 . Hazleton North, Gloucestershire, 1979–82: The excavation of a neolithic long cairn of the Cotswold-Severn group . English Heritage Archaeological Report . 13 . London, UK . English Heritage . 978-1850742135.
• Hedges . R. . Saville . A. . O'Connell . T. . 2008 . Characterizing the diet of individuals at the neolithic chambered tomb of Hazleton North, Gloucestershire, England, using stable isotopic analysis . . 50 . 1 . 114–128 . 10.1111/j.1475-4754.2007.00379.x.
• Alan . Saville . 2010 . Anatomizing an archaeological project – Hazleton revisited . Transactions of the Bristol & Gloucestershire Archaeological Society . 128 . 9–27.
• Chris . Fowler . Iñigo . Olalde . Vicki . Cummings . Ian . Armit . Lindsey . Büster . Sarah . Cuthbert . Nadin . Rohland . Olivia . Cheronet . Ron . Pinhasi . David . Reich . 6 . 22 December 2021 . A high-resolution picture of kinship practices in an Early Neolithic tomb . Nature. 600,601 . 7890,7894 . -- so far only online? -->,584–587 . 1476-4687 . 10.1038/s41586-021-04241-4. 34937939 . 8896835 .