Gunner Tower, Roman cremation burial
Gunner Tower, Roman cremation burial
HER Number
1447
District
Newcastle
Site Name
Gunner Tower, Roman cremation burial
Place
Newcastle
Map Sheet
NZ26SW
Class
Religious Ritual and Funerary
Site Type: Broad
Burial
Site Type: Specific
Cremation Burial
General Period
ROMAN
Specific Period
Roman 43 to 410
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
424540
Northing
563930
Grid Reference
NZ424540563930
Sources
<< HER 1447 >> B. Harbottle, 1967, An Excavation at the Gunner Tower, Newcastle upon Tyne, 1964, Archaeologia Aeliana, 4, XLV, 129, 137