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During the Late Neolithic and early Bronze-Ages, barrows came to be the preferred form of internment, especially, it seems, as a resting-place for the earthly remains of single family or tribal groupings. These constructions were required to be re-opened for each internment, which were no doubt conducted with due solemnity and a certain amount of ceremonial. Around 2,500 B.C., however, they began to be built for individual high status burials, accompanied by quality grave goods, which perhaps indicates the development of clan chieftains and/or a priestly class around this time.
There are a great many different types of barrow, using various methods of construction, often depending on the quality of local materials. The most consistent features include a mound of varying size and make-up which was placed centrally over the internment(s), also a surrounding ditch which may or may not be accompanied by an external spoil bank. The commonest type is the circular Bowl barrow which predominated during the Neolithic and early Bronze-Ages but continued to be built until the Iron-Age. Bell barrows were large early Bronze-Age mounds often covering male burials and separated from the surrounding ditch by a flat space or berm, the ditches often enclosed more than one mound. Also predominant during the early Bronze-Age were the Saucer barrows which usually covered female burials. Pond barrows were connected with the burial ritual, being primarily used as mortuaries and places where the dead were exposed prior to burial, a few also being used for internments. A table showing the main Barrow Types is shown on the left; based on the diagram in Nicholas Thomas' Guide to Prehistoric England (fig.11, p.25).
The word tumulus is Latin for a hillock or small mound and is no longer in common use in modern English, except, it seems, by the Ordnance Survey, who use the word on their maps to denote a burial mound of unknown or uncertain type, especially those which have not yet been excavated.