Warden Law North barrow

HER Number:
447

District:
Sunderland

Site Name:
Warden Law North barrow

Place:
Warden Law

Map Sheet:
NZ35SE

Class:
Religious Ritual and Funerary

Site Type: Broad:
Funerary site

Site Type: Specific:
Barrow

General Period:
Prehistoric

Specific Period:
Bronze Age

Form of Evidence:
Levelled Earthwork

Description:
In 1979 an urned cremation was discovered in the side of a quarry at Warden Law. It had originally been buried in a short cist covered by a mound, or barrow which was probably elliptical in plan, with a longitudinal axis approximately north-south and measuring a minimum of 11 metres long and 1.10 metres high. The cist was formed by six split-sandstone slabs, placed at right angles to each other, making a small, stone box, 300 mm square. The base of the box rested directly on the glacial till. It was completely sealed by a mound of earth to a height of 600 mm, indicating that the cist was not introduced into a pre-existing mound. It is possible that other burials may have been present before quarrying damaged the burial mound. The urn is of an unusual form in a red-brown gritted fabric, fractured but complete, and is 215 mm high, with a rim diameter of 231 mm. The internal rim bevel is decorated with oblique incisions, and the external also with short oblique slashes, below which longer incisions descend almost to the base.

Easting:
372

Northing:
505

Grid Reference:
NZ372505

Lats/Lons:

Sources:
<< HER 447 >> Excavation report, W. Ford & R. Miket, 1982, An Urned Cremation from Warden Law, Tyne and Wear, Archaeologia Aeliana, 5, X, pp. 53-59 R. Miket, 1984, The Prehistory of Tyne and Wear, p. 71 no. 5