Newcastle, Clavering Place, Roman coffins

HER Number:
1450

District:
Newcastle

Site Name:
Newcastle, Clavering Place, Roman coffins

Place:
Newcastle

Map Sheet:
NZ26SW

Class:
Religious Ritual and Funerary

Site Type: Broad:
Burial

Site Type: Specific:
Inhumation

General Period:
Roman

Specific Period:

Form of Evidence:
Find

Description:
In 1903, while a site was being excavated for Robinsons' new warehouse on the east side of Clavering Place, two stone coffins were uncovered, both about 4 feet long. The first contained a Roman castor-ware beaker, and some human bones. The latter had been disturbed after discovery. Rich wrote, "Strewn on the bottom of the coffin were some bones of a skull, and what appeared to be ribs, but none of the bones of the legs, arms, or vertebrae. Some small remnants of charcoal were found at the foot of the coffin". Because the coffin measured c.3.5 x 1.5 feet internally he concluded it was the burial of a young person. The beaker, decorated with "slip ornament in relief", measured 4.24 inches high, and had the diameters of 1.5 inches+ at the rim, 3.5 inches at the centre, and 1inch+ at the base.

Easting:
2493

Northing:
6378

Grid Reference:
NZ24936378

Lats/Lons:

Sources:
<< HER 1450 >> F.W. Rich, 1904, Two stone coffins of the Roman period, in one of them human bones... Archaeologia Aeliana, 2, XXV, 147-149 Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Newcastle, 1905, 3, I, 95-96 M.H. Dodds, 1930, Inscribed and Sculptured Stones Newcastle, Northumberland County History, XIII, 548