South Shields, Roman inhumation cemetery

HER Number:
902

District:
S Tyneside

Site Name:
South Shields, Roman inhumation cemetery

Place:
South Shields

Map Sheet:
NZ36NE

Class:
Religious Ritual and Funerary

Site Type: Broad:
Cemetery

Site Type: Specific:
Inhumation Cemetery

General Period:
Roman

Specific Period:

Form of Evidence:
Find

Description:
During the latter part of the 19th century, while both archaeological excavations and building works were in progress in the vicinity of the Roman fort on the Lawe, a number of finds were made suggesting the existence of Roman cemeteries south of the south-west corner of the fort. The finds diagnostic of an inhumation cemetery were random human bones, and whole skeletons in actual graves. There were also tombstones and fragments of other funerary monuments (HER nos. 896-901). They were largely concentrated under or west of Baring Street, from south of Coston Drive north to Julian Street/Livingstone Place, with a couple of outliers to the north and north-west. More precisely these discoveries lie east of grid line NZ 3646 and north of NZ 6746. Excavations in 1993 in Morton Walk, 300 metres south of the fort, revealed 3 inhumations of 4th century A.D. date.

Easting:
36

Northing:
67

Grid Reference:
NZ3667

Lats/Lons:

Sources:
<< HER 902 >> Newcastle Daily Journal, 1876, 19 February, p. 3, col. 7 Rev. R.E. Hooppell, 1880, On the...Exploration of Roman Remains at South Shields in...1875-6, Transactions Natural History Society Northumberland, Durham and Newcastle-on-Tyne, Vol. VII, p. 165, plates V, XII Archaeologia, 1880, Vol. 46, 169 JBAA, 1880, Vol. 36, 113-14 C. Bruce, 1880, On the recent discoveries in the Roman Camp on the Lawe... Archaeologia Aeliana, 2, X, 223 Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries, 2, I, 19 R. Blair, 1913 - 3, Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Newcastle, V (for 1911-12), 137-8 P.T. Bidwell, 1988, The Civilian Settlement...of the Roman Fort at South Shields, passim M. Snape, 1993, Excavations...1992-3...Morton Walk, South Shields, The Arbeia Journal, Vol. II, pp. 55-59