Fatfield, barrow

HER Number:
318

District:
Sunderland

Site Name:
Fatfield, barrow

Place:
Fatfield

Map Sheet:
NZ35SW

Class:
Religious Ritual and Funerary

Site Type: Broad:
Funerary site

Site Type: Specific:
Round Barrow

General Period:
Prehistoric

Specific Period:
Bronze Age

Form of Evidence:
Levelled Earthwork

Description:
In October and November 1907 the construction of a new road in Fatfield led to the removal of a possible barrow, composed of sand, and the excvation three cists within it. The discovery was in the back lane between Castle Street and Victoria View, about just over half-way up from the south end, about 240 yards from the river and 150 yards from the ridge above it. All three cists contained inhumation burials (skeletens), and one a food vessel. He sides of the first two cists, excavated in October 1907, were each formed of one large stone, and both cists were covered by one very large slab which lay c.1 foot below the surface. Both were filled with fine sand. The third cist, opened in November 1907, was 10 inches below the surface, and measured 3.5 feet x 2.5 feet x 4 inches thick. It covered a cist with the internal dimensions of 3.5 feet x 2 feet 4 inches x 2 feet deep. Each side was composed of a long and a short slab, with a narrow one at each end, and no base. The food vessel was "of very rough workmanship and poor ornamentation… 7.25 inches high, 4.75 inches in diameter with the walls 0.5 inch thick". The ornamentation comprised thin parallel lines around the vessel, with indented thumb marks between them. An excavation in 1977 failed to locate this site.

Easting:
3073

Northing:
5374

Grid Reference:
NZ30735374

Lats/Lons:

Sources:
<< HER 318 >> R.H. Jeffreys, 1909, Discovery of Pre-Historic Burials at Fatfield,Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Newcastle, 3, III (for 1907-08), pp. 150-5 C.T. Trechmann, 1914, Some Prehistoric Remains in the County of Durham, Antiquities of Sunderland, Vol. XV, p. 35 C.T. Trechmann, 1914, Prehistoric Burials in the County of Durham, Archaeologia Aeliana, 3, XI, pp. 169-70 R. Young, 1980, An Inventory of Barrows in Co. Durham, Transactions Architectectural & Archaeological Society of Durham & Northumberland, New series, Vol. 5, p. 8 no. 31 R. Miket, 1984, The Prehistory of Tyne and Wear, p. 67 no. 1, pl. 6.3