On the opening and examination of a barrow of the British period at Warkshaugh, North Tyneside / by Geo. Rome Hall.

  • Hall, George Rome.
Date:
[1865?]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On the opening and examination of a barrow of the British period at Warkshaugh, North Tyneside / by Geo. Rome Hall. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    01' TiiK muxisa i>i;iuod ax wauks-jiauou. 15:3 la-w gatherings and Druid ceremonies,) will well repay a visit, and it is in the neighbourhood of British forts on the Gunuar Crags and Pity-me Hill.^ It must he confessed, that in the matter of barroAV-diggings, the ploughman in this district has been more faA’ourcd by fortune than the antiquary. Though several interesting tumuli have been accidentally discovered in this valley, even within the last few years, no careful examination of them seems to have been attempted, or, at least, no record of it remains. Solitaiy burials of the pre-historic or Bomano-British period have been found in drainage at Carry House, on an escarpment near the Warksburn Bridge, where it falls into the North Tyne, and in a low-lying site by the river at Smalesmouth, near Ealstone. In the first case an urn, having the ashes of cremation Avithin it, Avas taken out of a cist or stone-lined grave, strangely enough, placed almost in the centre of a British fort. The urn is lost, having been at once broken to pieces by the finders Avhen disappointed in their expectations of a concealed hoard. In the second instance an ornament of black bog oak, perforated with five holes, as if used in securing the proper adjustment of the lady’s attire who Avas buried there, in primeval days, was found Avithin the cist. And in the last example, the covering-slab of the cist attracted the attention of the road-makers, who were in want of material for breaking up, when the grave itself Avas uncoA’ered. The uim, of the so-called “drinking-cup” type, was in excellent condition, from the dryness of the site by the way-side, and though it stood nearly twelve months in a neighbouring cottage, at Greystead, I found it in good preservation. It is now in Mr. Greenwell’s * The resemblance between the mysterious concentric circles incised on the rocks of Northumberland, and the configuration of those ancient earth-works, was pointed out by Mr. Greenwell, who has the honour to have first brought the subject of these most interest- ing rock-synitx)ls before the public, in a paper read at the Newcastle meeting of the Archa;o- logical Institute, in 1852. 'Xhe great central mound represents the hollowed cup of these symbolical figures, around which are similar concentric lines, in this case, the sun-ounding ditches and rain])art. From the centre also a projection, as it were, of the diameter passes through and beyond the encircling lines. The hollow way of the Moncy-llill fort runs for a distance of one hundred and twenty feet from the circular fosse, and answers to the duct or channel which leads out from the central cup of the rock inscriptions.