Editing Coldrum Long Barrow (section)

==Design and construction==

[[File:Coldrum Long Barrow Plan.jpg|thumb|right|Plan of the monument; the darker green area represents the area of the earthen mound.|alt=A plan of the Coldrum Long Barrow. A roughly rectangular shape, aligned from the top to the bottom of the image, is in the centre, marked out in dark green. At the bottom end of this rectangle is a drawing of a stone chamber. Around the top half of the rectangle are grey boulders marked out. At the bottom of the rectangle, various grey boulders are marked out, but are sprawled around in an irregular fashion.]]

The Coldrum Long Barrow originally consisted of a sarsen stone chamber, covered by a low earthen mound, which was bounded by prostrate slabs.{{sfn|Ashbee|1998|p=1}} As such, Ashbee asserted that the monument could be divided into three particular features: the chamber, the barrow, and the sarsen stone surround.{{sfn|Ashbee|1998|p=12}} It had been built using about 50 stones.{{sfn|Philp|Dutto|2005|p=1}} The barrow is sub-rectangular in plan, and about {{convert|20|metres}} in length.{{sfnm|1a1=Ashbee|1y=1998|1p=17|2a1=Philp|2a2=Dutto|2y=2005|2p=1}} At its broader, eastern end, where the chamber is located, the monument measures {{convert|50|feet|order=flip}}, while at the narrower, western end, it is {{convert|40|ft|order=flip}} in breadth.{{sfn|Ashbee|1998|p=17}} As such, the barrow is a "truncated wedge-shape".{{sfn|Philp|Dutto|2005|p=1}}

The megalithic builders responsible for the Coldrum Stones positioned it on the top of a small ridge adjacent to the North Downs, and constructed it facing eastward, towards the River Medway.{{sfn|Philp|Dutto|2005|p=1}} It is located on the edge of a large [[lynchet]] scarp,{{sfn|Ashbee|1998|p=11}} although it is difficult to ascertain what views would have been possible from the monument at the time of construction, due to a lack of information on how densely forested the vicinity was.{{sfn|Killick|2010|p=343}} If the area was not highly wooded, then 360° views of the surrounding landscape would have been possible.{{sfn|Killick|2010|p=343}} The monument's axis points toward both the North Downs and the Medway Valley, which is similar to the other Medway Megaliths.{{sfn|Killick|2010|p=346}} The archaeologist Sian Killick suggested that the Coldrum Long Barrow might have been built within view of a nearby settlement, and that this "may have been a key factor in the experience of ceremonies and rituals taking place at the tombs and may also have defined a link between the tomb builders and the landscape."{{sfn|Killick|2010|p=347}}

Coldrum Long Barrow is comparatively isolated from the other Medway Megaliths; in this it is unique, given that the other surviving examples are clustered into two groups.{{sfn|Ashbee|1998|p=11}} It is possible that another chambered tomb was located nearby; a razed, elongated earthen mound with an east–west orientation is located in a hollow at the foot of the downs just under a quarter of a mile north of the Coldrum Stones. It may be that this represents the remnants of another such monument which has had its stones removed or buried.{{sfn|Ashbee|1998|p=11}} Several large sarsens south of the Coldrums might represent the remnants of a further such tomb, since destroyed.{{sfn|Ashbee|1998|p=11}}

===The chamber===

[[File:Coldrum Long Barrow - geograph.org.uk - 653.jpg|thumb|left|The chamber of the Coldrum Stones, as seen from their western side|alt=Three large grey boulders stand, adjacent to each other, on an area of grass in the foreground of the picture. In the background, the land drops dramatically to reveal an area of lower farmland.]]

The inner chamber measures {{convert|13|ft|order=flip}} in length, and {{convert|5|ft|6|in|order=flip}} in width, although it was potentially much larger when originally constructed.{{sfn|Ashbee|1998|p=13}} The chamber's internal height would have been at least {{convert|6|ft|6|in|order=flip}}.{{sfn|Ashbee|1998|p=13}} In its current state, the 
northern side of the chamber is made up of two slabs. One is {{convert|8|ft|order=flip}} long, {{convert|7|ft|6|in|order=flip}} deep, and {{convert|1|ft|9|in|order=flip}} thick;
the other is {{convert|5|ft|order=flip}} long, nearly {{convert|6|ft|order=flip}} deep, and {{convert|2|ft|order=flip}} thick.{{sfn|Ashbee|1998|p=13}} Conversely, the chamber's southern side consists of a single slab, measuring {{convert|11|ft|4|in|order=flip}} in length, {{convert|7|ft|3|in|order=flip}} in depth, and {{convert|1|ft|9|in|order=flip}} in thickness at its eastern end.{{sfn|Ashbee|1998|p=13}}

The western end of the chamber is closed off with a slab measuring about {{convert|4|ft|6|in|order=flip}} wide, with a thickness of {{convert|1|ft|order=flip}} and a depth of around {{convert|8|ft|order=flip}}.{{sfn|Ashbee|1998|p=13}} A collapsed, broken slab lies at the chamber's opening, eastern end.{{sfn|Ashbee|1998|p=14}} It is also possible that a largely rectangular slab at the bottom of the slope had once been part of the chamber's eastern end.{{sfn|Ashbee|1998|p=14}} Excavation has revealed that flint masonry was used to pack around the chamber and support its sarsens; 20th-century renovation has seen this largely replaced with cement, allowing the stones to continue standing upright.{{sfn|Ashbee|1998|p=15}}

It is possible that there was a facade in front of the chamber, as is evident at other chambered tombs in Britain, such as [[West Kennet Long Barrow]] and [[Wayland's Smithy]].{{sfn|Ashbee|1998|p=19}} It is also possible that there was a [[portal stone]] atop the chamber, as was apparent at Kit's Coty House and Lower Kit's Coty House.{{sfn|Ashbee|1998|p=19}} Many of the larger slabs of stone that have fallen down the slope on the eastern end of the monument may have been parts of this facade or portal.{{sfn|Ashbee|1998|p=19}}

===The mound and kerb-stones===

[[File:Kerbstones along the Western Side of Coldrum Long Barrow (I).jpg|right|thumb|upright|The western edge of the monument|alt=From the top to the bottom of the image, a range of large, grey and mottled stones are situated at a low level, surrounded and partially covered by soil and green grass. In the background is a dark green hedge.]]

The earthen mound that once covered the tomb is now visible only as an undulation approximately {{convert|1|ft|6|in|order=flip}} in height.{{sfn|Ashbee|1998|p=15}} In the 19th century, the mound was higher on the western end of the tomb, although during the 1920s this was removed by excavation to reveal the sarsens beneath.{{sfn|Ashbee|1998|p=15}} It is probable that in the Early Neolithic, the mound had a quarry ditch surrounding it, and it is inside this ditch that the kerb-stones now sit.{{sfn|Ashbee|1998|p=15}}

The kerb-stones around the tomb display some patterning; those on the northern side are mostly rectilinear, while those on the southern side are smaller and largely irregular in shape.{{sfn|Ashbee|1998|p=17}} It is probable that there was an ancillary dry-stone wall constructed using blocks of [[ironstone]] from the geological [[Lower Greensand Group|Folkestone beds]], as is evident at Chestnuts Long Barrow.{{sfn|Ashbee|1998|p=17}} Given that such blocks of stone rarely occur naturally, it may have been quarried.{{sfn|Ashbee|1998|p=17}}

A concave line of abrasion and polishing can be found both on one of the central kerb-stones on the western end of the monument and on a kerb-stone on the south-east of the monument. These have been attributed to the sharpening of flint and other stone axe-blades on these sarsens.{{sfn|Ashbee|1998|p=17}} It is possible that these tools were sharpened for use in cutting and carving the timber levers and struts which would have been used in erecting the stones and constructing the tomb.{{sfn|Ashbee|1998|pp=17–18}} Similar evidence for the sharpening of tools has been found at West Kennet Long Barrow, as well as later prehistoric monuments such as [[Stonehenge]].{{sfn|Ashbee|1998|p=18}}

===Meaning and purpose===

Britain's Early Neolithic communities placed greater emphasis on the ritual burial of the dead than their Mesolithic forebears.{{sfn|Malone|2001|p=103}} Archaeologists have suggested that this is because Early Neolithic Britons adhered to an [[ancestor cult]] that venerated the spirits of the dead, believing that they could intercede with the forces of nature for the benefit of their living descendants.{{sfnm|1a1=Burl|1y=1981|1p=61|2a1=Malone|2y=2001|2p=103}} The archaeologist Robin Holgate stressed that rather than simply being tombs, the Medway Megaliths were "communal monuments fulfilling a social function for the communities who built and used them".{{sfn|Holgate|1981|p=223}} Thus, it has been suggested that Early Neolithic people entered into the tombs—which doubled as [[temple]]s or [[shrine]]s—to perform rituals honouring the dead and requesting their assistance.{{sfnm|1a1=Burl|1y=1981|1p=61}} For this reason, the historian [[Ronald Hutton]] termed these monuments "tomb-shrines" to reflect their dual purpose.{{sfn|Hutton|2013|p=41}}

In Britain, these tombs were typically located on prominent hills and slopes overlooking the landscape, perhaps at the junction between different territories.{{sfn|Malone|2001|pp=106–107}} The archaeologist [[Caroline Malone]] noted that the tombs would have served as one of various landscape markers that conveyed information on "territory, political allegiance, ownership, and ancestors".{{sfn|Malone|2001|p=107}} Many archaeologists have subscribed to the idea that these tomb-shrines were territorial markers between different tribes; others have argued that such markers would be of little use to a nomadic herding society.{{sfn|Hutton|2013|pp=42–43}} Instead it has been suggested that they represent markers along herding pathways.{{sfn|Hutton|2013|p=43}} The archaeologist [[Richard Bradley (archaeologist)|Richard Bradley]] suggested that the construction of these monuments reflects an attempt to mark control and ownership over the land, thus reflecting a change in mindset brought about by the transition from the hunter-gatherer Mesolithic to the pastoralist Early Neolithic.{{sfn|Hutton|2013|p=39}} Others have suggested that these monuments were built on sites already deemed sacred by Mesolithic hunter-gatherers.{{sfn|Hutton|2013|pp=39–40}}