Figure 15: Beckhampton Cove and surrounding barrows.
As one progresses, South Street long barrow appears and, together with Longstones long barrow, frames the view of the Beckhampton Cove (Fig. 15). This place introduces a new situation: up until now one has been distanced from the long barrows but now two of them stand side by side with one's destination. Burl (1990, 7) suggests coves represent an open chambered tomb, thus the Beckhampton Cove can be viewed as a final entry to a long barrow. Furthermore, the destination, the Beckhampton Cove, is much smaller than the previous stone enclosures encountered. This might be read as indicating that one is in the deepest part of the place of the dead, in a position where one can finally approach the places of the ancestors, but the size of the Beckhampton Cove limits the number of people, thus showing that this is a restricted place, only for those specially chosen.
Figure 15: Beckhampton Cove and surrounding barrows.
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Last updated: Tues Oct 27 2009