Sunderland, Hasting Hill, cursus

HER Number:
110

District:
Sunderland

Site Name:
Sunderland, Hasting Hill, cursus

Place:
Sunderland

Map Sheet:
NZ35SE

Class:
Religious Ritual and Funerary

Site Type: Broad:

Site Type: Specific:
Cursus

General Period:
Prehistoric

Specific Period:
Neolithic/Bronze Age

Form of Evidence:
Cropmark

Description:
A rectangular structure, marked by ditches, has been tentatively identified as a cursus, or ceremonial pathway. Its square north end is c. 30 m wide, and close to the south-east side of the Hasting Hill interrupted ditch enclosure. It is aligned roughly north-south, and its parallel sides are visible for a length of some 200 m. In 1980, a little to the south of the interrupted ditch enclosure, the cursus ditch was located and excavated and found to be about 1 m wide and 40 cm deep, with a V-shape of asymmetrical profile and some sizeable stones in the bottom. This is one of a group of features regarded as unique in north-east, but probably being steadily destroyed by ploughing. SCHEDULED ANCIENT MONUMENT.

Easting:
355

Northing:
538

Grid Reference:
NZ355538

Lats/Lons:

Sources:
<< HER 110 >> Aerial Photograph, N. McCord, 1971, Hasting Hill, A/083715/30-32- Museum of Antiquities Aerial Photograph, D.W. Harding, Hasting Hill, 116.1-8, 117.2,4,6-8- Dept. of Archaeology Durham Aerial Photograph, Ordnance Survey 1974, Hasting Hill, 74.195, 074-75 T.G. Newman, 1976, A Crop-Mark Site at Hasting Hill, Tyne and Wear, NZ 355 541 Archaeologia Aeliana, 5, IV, pp. 183-4, pl. IX A.F. Harding, 1980, Hasting Hill, 1980 R. Miket, 1984, The Prehistory of Tyne and Wear, no. 2, p. 70, pl. 7 Aerial Photograph, National Monuments Record, 1974, Hasting Hill 1974.240-244 -Dept.of Archaeology Durham; Phase Site Investigations, 2014, Hasting Hill and Penshaw Hill - Geophysical Survey; Harding and Biggins, 2012, Hasting Hill Monument Complex, Sunderland - Geophysical Survey