Newcastle, King's Meadows, horse bit

HER Number:
1493

District:
Newcastle

Site Name:
Newcastle, King's Meadows, horse bit

Place:
Newcastle

Map Sheet:
NZ26SW

Class:
Animal Equipment

Site Type: Broad:
Harness Fitting

Site Type: Specific:
Bridle Bit

General Period:
Prehistoric

Specific Period:
Iron Age

Form of Evidence:
Find

Description:
Iron horse-bit, only a fragment of one side surviving. Maximum length 133 mm. Heslop suggests that the metalwork at King's Meadows was a deliberate votive deposition. The River Tyne was a major arterial route inland and a possible boundary between tribal groupings, and appears to have been the focus of ceremonial activity by communities gathering here from considerable distances. There is a recurring pattern in the Bronze Age for metalwork deposition in watery places. The concentration of objects around the small island of King's Meadows has parallels at Runnymede on the Thames.

Easting:
218

Northing:
632

Grid Reference:
NZ218632

Lats/Lons:

Sources:
<< HER 1493 >> R. Miket, 1984, The Prehistory of Tyne and Wear, no. 13 p. 39, and fig. 12 p. 42; D.H. Heslop, Newcastle and Gateshead before AD 1080 in Diana Newton and AJ Pollard, 2009, Newcastle and Gateshead before 1700, pages 1-22