<< Other Photo Pages >> Pitland Hills Barrow Rock Art - Rock Art in England in Northumberland
Submitted by vicky on Sunday, 21 July 2002 Page Views: 6403
Rock ArtSite Name: Pitland Hills Barrow Rock Art Alternative Name: ERA-2049; Beckensall 1107; Pitland Hills Cairn (Birtley)Country: England County: Northumberland Type: Rock Art
Nearest Town: Bellingham / Hexham Nearest Village: Birtley
Map Ref: NY887793 Landranger Map Number: 87
Latitude: 55.107975N Longitude: 2.178658W
Condition:
| 5 | Perfect |
| 4 | Almost Perfect |
| 3 | Reasonable but with some damage |
| 2 | Ruined but still recognisable as an ancient site |
| 1 | Pretty much destroyed, possibly visible as crop marks |
| 0 | No data. |
| -1 | Completely destroyed |
| 5 | Superb |
| 4 | Good |
| 3 | Ordinary |
| 2 | Not Good |
| 1 | Awful |
| 0 | No data. |
| 5 | Can be driven to, probably with disabled access |
| 4 | Short walk on a footpath |
| 3 | Requiring a bit more of a walk |
| 2 | A long walk |
| 1 | In the middle of nowhere, a nightmare to find |
| 0 | No data. |
| 5 | co-ordinates taken by GPS or official recorded co-ordinates |
| 4 | co-ordinates scaled from a detailed map |
| 3 | co-ordinates scaled from a bad map |
| 2 | co-ordinates of the nearest village |
| 1 | co-ordinates of the nearest town |
| 0 | no data |
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This site is recorded as England's Rock Art entry for ERA-2049 The Pitland Hills Cairn, Birtley Site, which includes Beckensall's Archive Notes and a drawing of the cup marked stones. The original Beckensall record can be found at Internet Archive: Beckensall 1107 The Pitland Hills Cairn, Birtley.
Beckensall tells us: "The Rev G Rome Hall, vicar of Birtley, excavated a number of burials in the Pitland hills are, but only one included marked stones. The mound was 46’x 35’ diameters, and 5’5ins high. (14mx10.6mx1.65m). 17 stones with cups were discovered in the mound, varying in size and shape. The largest number of cups on any stone was twelve. The barrow had been carefully constructed, and in places slabs had been laid in overlapping courses. There were signs of burning in various parts of the mound and there was an inverted cinerary urn on a flat stone, crushed beyond restoration. It had ‘lozenge—shaped scorings made by a twisted thong.’ Some cremated bones of a young child lay among the sherds."
"There were two cists. One, with a 3’6” cover (1.07m), contained a contracted skeleton, its knees doubled up to the chin, its left hand under the thigh and right arm across the chest. There was a food vessel with a rim decorated with herringbone ornament inside. Under the right cheek of the body, a man of about forty, was a rounded and flattened pebble-hammer with signs of abrasion. The second cist was not so well made, and was smaller. There were pieces of charcoal inside."
A large unshapely block of stone was placed so as to project slightly over the cist at the SE corner which was near the site of the broken cinerary urn. Upon this stone on the upper face were two cup markings, one of which was smoothed. There were 17 cup marked stones, all made of rough sandstone, although the parent rock was limestone."
For details of the individual stones, see the comments section below.
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Wir möchten mehr über diese Stätte erfahren. Bitte zögern Sie nicht, eine kurze Beschreibung und relevante Informationen in Deutsch hinzuzufügen.
Nous aimerions en savoir encore un peu sur les lieux. S'il vous plaît n'hesitez pas à ajouter une courte description et tous les renseignements pertinents dans votre propre langue.
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