A bell barrow, sometimes referred to as a Wessex type barrow, campanulate form barrow, or a bermed barrow is a type of tumulus identified as such by both John Aubrey and William Stukeley.
In the United Kingdom they take the form of a circular mound or mounds within a circular ditch, the mounds being separated from the ditch and each other by a berm. There is sometimes present an additional bank, external to the ditch. The ditch is typically the source of the material used to create the mound and is therefore described as a "quarry_ditch". A burial pit beneath the mound usually contains human remains, sometimes cremated, sometimes simply interred. Grave goods such as daggers or pottery vessels are commonly found within the burial pit also. An example at Sutton Veney included a wooden coffin. The bell barrow Milton Lilbourne 2 in Wiltshire has no burial associated with it. Most bell barrows in the United Kingdom date to the early Bronze Age.
Leslie Grinsell constructed a typology for bell barrows:
Type Ia: A single mound with a narrow berm
Type Ib: A single mound with a normal berm
Type Ic: A single mound with a wide berm
Type II: Two mounds
Type III: Three mounds
Type IV: Four mounds
External link
Bell Barrows monument class description (http://www.eng-h.gov.uk/mpp/mcd/bell.htm)
First, the Nordic Bronze Age barrow gave its name to the location Håga ("the barrow"), which became part of the cognomen of the king, at Haugi ("at the barrow"), and interestingly, the mound was later named after the king.
Platform barrow The least common of the recognised types of round barrow, consisting of a flat, wide circular mound, which may be surrounded by a ditch.
Pond barrow a barrow consisting of a shallow circular depression, surrounded by a bank running around the rim of the depression.
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