Newcastle, Gunner Tower, Roman cremation burial

HER Number:
1447

District:
Newcastle

Site Name:
Newcastle, Gunner Tower, Roman cremation burial

Place:
Newcastle

Map Sheet:
NZ26SW

Class:
Religious Ritual and Funerary

Site Type: Broad:
Burial

Site Type: Specific:
Cremation

General Period:
Roman

Specific Period:
C2-C4

Form of Evidence:
Find

Description:
Within the remains of the medieval Gunner Tower, on the south side of Pink Lane, and lying in an ash-filled hollow in the layer above the subsoil, there was a pot containing a cremation. The pot emerged in many fragments which made up the greater part of a jar or cooking pot in light reddish-brown sandy fabric. In form and fabric it is of a type commonly found on the eastern third of Hadrian's Wall, from contexts ranging from the second quarter of 2nd century to the early 4th century A.D. The calcined bones consisted of fragments of the skull, tibia and fibula. It was concluded that the remains were those of a person of undetermined sex and of c.18 years of age. In addition were found "five fragments of a beaker in fine white-bodied fabric with very dark colour-coating, decorated with "rouletting", dating from the 2nd 0r 3rd century

Easting:
2454

Northing:
6393

Grid Reference:
NZ24546393

Lats/Lons:

Sources:
<< HER 1447 >> B. Harbottle, 1967, An Excavation at the Gunner Tower, Newcastle upon Tyne, 1964, Archaeologia Aeliana, 4, XLV, 129, 137