Abstract

The rolling limestone uplands of the Cotswold Hills of eastern Gloucestershire and adjacent parts of Oxfordshire in the mid-west of England provided the geographical context for one of the eleven regional groupings of Neolithic round barrows identified by Ian Kinnes in his seminal study of these monuments. Like most of the other regional groupings identified, the Cotswold Hills are rich in long barrows of the fourth millennium BC and round barrows conventionally dated to the second millennium BC and later. Starting from the systematic tabulated listings and descriptions published by Helen O’Neil and Leslie Grinsell in 1960, Kinnes recognized five sites: Notgrove, Hungerfield, Dry Heathfield, The Waste, and The Soldier’s Grave. Reviews of these structures, further fieldwork, and the results of commercial archaeology has expanded knowledge of some of the known examples and revealed a handful of further possible examples. This short review provides an update of the Cotswold Neolithic round barrows 30 years on from their recognition as a distinct regional group.