Long Low, Wetton facts for kids
Long Low is an ancient site in Staffordshire, England. It dates back to the Neolithic (New Stone Age) and Bronze Age periods. This special place is located about 2 kilometers southeast of a village called Wetton.
It's a very unusual site because it has two round piles of stones, called cairns, connected by a long bank. This unique design isn't found anywhere else in England!
The Northern Stone Pile
The northern stone pile is quite large. It measures about 23 meters (75 feet) across. It still stands about 2.4 meters (8 feet) tall today. This large pile seems to be connected to other ancient burial places in the Peak District area.
Archaeologists dug up this northern pile a long time ago. A man named Samuel Carrington explored it in 1849. He discovered a burial room inside. This room was built using large, upright limestone slabs, and it had a paved floor. Inside, they found the bones of thirteen different people. They also found three arrowheads made from flint, shaped like leaves.
The Southern Stone Pile and Connecting Bank
The southern stone pile is smaller than the northern one. It is about 15 meters (49 feet) wide. It stands about 1.2 meters (4 feet) tall, but it has been damaged a lot over time. Inside this southern pile, archaeologists found signs of a cremation burial. This means someone's body was burned there.
More cremation remains were found in the long bank that connects the two stone piles. This bank was built from a row of limestone slabs placed side by side. It is about 200 meters (656 feet) long, 10 meters (33 feet) wide, and 2 meters (7 feet) high. Today, a modern dry stone wall sits on top of this ancient bank.
What Was Long Low?
Because the site has been damaged and was dug up so long ago, it's a bit unclear exactly what Long Low was meant to be. It's a very rare type of monument.
One idea is that the long bank might have been a special type of burial mound called a bank barrow. Later, during the Neolithic period, a chambered cairn (the northern stone pile with its burial room) might have been built at one end. Then, in the Bronze Age, a round barrow (the southern stone pile) was added at the other end. This would mean the site grew and changed over thousands of years!
