Tyne and Wear HER(7): Sunderland, Humbledon Hill, cremation - Details
7
Sunderland
Sunderland, Humbledon Hill, cremation
Sunderland
NZ35NE
Religious Ritual and Funerary
Burial
Cremation
Prehistoric
Bronze Age
Find
In 1873, during the construction of the Humbledon Hill High Reservoir on the summit of the hill, a barrow was removed and several burials discovered, three in cremation urns (two inverted). The urns, two of which survive, are described as of 'food vessel' type and decorated with incised chevrons, herringbone and zig-zag patterns. A geophysical survey of the surrounding hill in 2001 revealed the probable remains of ditches and/or a palisade trench enclosing the hilltop summit with a possible entrance to the west. Other gullies and ditches are also present. These features are typical of prehistoric enclosures or fortifications but have not been investigated by excavation.
3802
5524
NZ38025524
<< HER 7 >> G.B. Gibbs, 1912, Early History of the Water Supplies of Sunderland and South Shields, Antiquities of Sunderland, Vol. XII (for 1911), p. 3
Transactions Natural History Society Northumberland, Durham and Newcastle, 1877, Note on Cinerary Vases found at Humbledon Hill, near Sunderland, Vol. V (for 1873-6), p. 97
W. Greenwell, 1877, British Barrows, pp. 440-1
Transactions Architectectural & Archaeological Society of Durham and Northumberland, 1890, A Prae-Historic Cist Burial at Sacriston, Vol. III (for 1880-89), p. 184
Archaeologia Aeliana, C.T. Trechmann, 1914, Prehistoric Burials in the County of Durham, 3, XI, pp. 120-1, 137
R. Miket, 1984, The Prehistory of Tyne and Wear, pp. 60-61, no. 4.1
R. Young, 1980, Transactions Architectectural & Archaeological Society of Durham and Northumberland An Inventory of Barrows in Co. Durham, New series, Vol. 5, p. 12
W. Page, ed. 1905, Early Man, Victoria County History, Durham, Vol. I, p. 208
Geoquest 2000, An Archaeological Assessment for ... Humbledon Hill, Sunderland