<< News >> High tides unearth burial mystery of bronze age child
Submitted by coldrum on Thursday, 15 November 2007 Page Views: 3643
Neolithic and Bronze AgeCountry: England County: Northumberland Type: Not Known (by us)Internal Links:
High tides and winds that have battered our shores have unearthed a burial mystery for archaeologists.
Erosion by the sea and weather has revealed what seems to be the remains of a Bronze Age child.
But what puzzled archaeologists was a layer of hard white material which appears to have been moulded around the body, like a casing.
"I have never seen anything like this material," said Sara Rushton who is leading the dig.
"It has obviously been applied deliberately and it is intriguing and baffling."
The burial, found at Druridge Bay, Northumberland, had been purposely cut into a layer of peat which has been dated to between 3780BC and 1000BC.
The same vicinity has produced other examples of prehistoric burials falling onto the beach because of erosion.
A two-year survey of the entire North-East coastline is starting because of the threat to archaeological and historic sites from climate change and coastal erosion.
The latest find was made by Keith Hartnell, who was filming a DVD about the new Northumberland Coastal Path for the Northern Heritage company which he set up in 1991, but which is now run by his son, Chris.
Keith wanted to include material on the previous Bronze Age coastal burial discoveries on the 64-mile path in the DVD, which is due out on December 3.
He said: "I was following the ancient peat layer along the cliff edge when I saw something which was bright white, and below that, a rib cage emerging from the cliff face.
"The stormy weather had broken off the edge of the burial chamber and you could see the rib cage and backbone of what looked like a child. My concern was that it could disappear with the following tides.
"It was an incredible find and it left me gobsmacked."
Dr Clive Waddington, who excavated a Stone Age site on the Northumberland coast at Howick, is managing director of Archaeological Research Services, which has been commissioned by English Heritage to carry out the coastal survey.
He said: "There have been one or two instances elsewhere in the country where a white gypsum-like material has been found in burials, which turns hard, like concrete.
"It is certainly an unusual find.
"The gypsum may have been applied to symbolise the transition from the world of the living to the world of the dead, to reflect the change from one state to another."
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