Summerhill, cist (3) with skeleton and Food Vessel

On 11 Nov. 1938 a cist burial was found on the edge of the Summerhill sand quarry some 40 yards from the Blaydon-Greenside road, opposite to a point 20 yards east of the lane which crosses that road at Path Head. The cist was excavated by T.R. Goddard of the Hancock Museum. It was constructed of four sandstone slabs which formed a rectangular space 2 feet x 3 feet 4 in, x 2 feet 3in deep, floored by thin irregular sand stone slabs and topped by a broken coverstone. The cist contained a poorly preserved contracted skeleton and a broken Food Vessel, with small fragments of charcoal and burnt bone on the floor. The Food Vessel, 150 mm high, rim diam 166 mm, base diam 88 mm, is in light buff fabric with a dark grey core. It is decorated with a single row of whipped cord impressions on the rim, alternating groups of horizontal and vertical lines of whipped cord on the neck and shoulder, with vertical lines between shoulder and base.