South Shields vicus, pine-cone funerary monument

HER Number:
899

District:
S Tyneside

Site Name:
South Shields vicus, pine-cone funerary monument

Place:
South Shields

Map Sheet:
NZ36NE

Class:
Religion or Ritual

Site Type: Broad:

Site Type: Specific:
Death Burial or Funerary Object

General Period:
Roman

Specific Period:
C2/C3

Form of Evidence:
Find

Description:
A slightly tapering polygonal shaft, broken at the bottom, culminating in a large pine-cone. Found in 1875, while making new roads on the Lawe, "in the burial ground of the South Shields Station". "That the monument is funerary is suggested not only by the pine-cone finial, but by its general resemblance in shape to the so-called Serpent Stone at Maryport, which is a gravestone consisting of a polygonal shaft surmounted by a head". A gold coin was found with the pine-cone.

Easting:
364

Northing:
675

Grid Reference:
NZ364675

Lats/Lons:

Sources:
<< HER 899 >> JC. Bruce, 1880, On the recent discoveries in the Roman Camp on the Lawe... Archaeologia Aeliana, 2, X, 250 E.J. Phillips, 1977, Great Britain, Corpus Signorum Imperii Romani, Vol. I Fasc. I No. 251 P.T. Bidwell, 1988, The Civilian Settlement...of the Roman Fort at South Shields, No. 30