South Shields Roman Fort, Prehistoric site

HER Number:
5127

District:
S Tyneside

Site Name:
South Shields Roman Fort, Prehistoric site

Place:
South Shields

Map Sheet:
NZ36NE

Class:
Domestic

Site Type: Broad:

Site Type: Specific:
Settlement

General Period:
Prehistoric

Specific Period:
Mesolithic/Bronze Age/Neolithic/Iron Age

Form of Evidence:
Find

Description:
Excavations at Arbeia Roman Fort in 1992-4 and 1999 revealed a multi-period prehistoric site preserved beneath the Roman fort. Flints attested mesolithic activity. In the early Neolithic a segmented ditch may represent part of a causewayed enclosure. By circa 3000 BC this had been superseded by pits and shelters associated with flint knapping. Finds also suggest a Bronze Age presence. The Iron Age was represented by a roundhouse (see HER 4357). Prehistoric artefacts have been recovered from the fort on previous occasions, including mesolithic and neolithic flints, a polished stone axe, a BA shale button and jet bead and a piece of Neolithic or Bronze Age rock art decorated with cups. During this excavation, 327 pieces of struck stone were recovered, mostly flint, but a few examples of chert and quartz. The tools included bashed lumps, cores, flakes, blades, scrapers, microliths, a burin and leaf-shaped arrowhead.

Easting:
363

Northing:
679

Grid Reference:
NZ363679

Lats/Lons:

Sources:
<< HER 5127 >> N. Hodgson, G.C. Stobbs & M. Van Der Veen... 2001, An Iron-Age Settlement and Remains of Earlier Prehistoric Date beneath, The Archaeological Journal, Vol 158, 2001, p 62-160 N. Hodgson, 2001, A Mesolithic, Neolithic and Iron Age Site beneath Arbeia Roman Fort, South Shields, Archaeology North, No. 19, Winter 2001