Cheviot Quarry
Tarmac Northern commissioned a series of archaeological investigations at Cheviot Quarry in Northumberland. Spectacular discoveries were made which include three phases of settlement dating from the Neolithic, the Late Bronze Age and Dark Age periods.
Neoliothic hearths, storage pits and post holes were discovered across the site, and in two distinct clusters, containing large quantities of stone tools, pottery, charred wood and other plant remains. The pottery included large sherds from Early Neolithic Carinated Bowls as well as Later Neolithic Grooved Ware. The stone objects included a variety of flint blade tools such as knives and scrapers, together with a roughout of a carved stone ball, a whetstone and a hammerstone for flintknapping.
The two circular houses encountered were dated to the Late Bronze Age (c.1000-870 BC). These were post-built houses which all had an entrance way facing south east towards the rising sun and were associated with a large amount of 'Flat Rimmed Ware', a type of pottery dating from this period. The occurrence of identifiable Later Bronze Age houses in the valley bottom is of importance as there is a paucity of evidence of what happens in settlement in the Late Bronze Age following an abandonment of the uplands in the 12th century BC.
The three rectangular houses were dated to the 'Dark Age' or British period and are very likely to pre-date the documented Anglo Saxon conquest of the area in the years around AD 547. This is again an important discovery as there is very little archaeological or documentary evidence for what this area was like during the time between the Roman and Anglo Saxon periods.
The Cheviot Quarry Project features as a major output of the ALSF reported in 'Extract', the annual report of the ALSF. To read an online copy of this year's 'Extract' click on this link. The project has also featured in leading archaeology magazine 'Current Archaeology'. For details on how to order a copy of 'Extract' click here.
For more information see:
• Passmore, D. G., C. Waddington and S. Houghton. 2002. Geoarchaeology of the Milfield Basin, northern England; towards an integrated archaeological prospection, research and management framework. Archaeological Prospection 9: 71-91.
• Waddington, C. (1999) A Landscape Archaeological Study of the Mesolithic-Neolithic in the Milfield Basin, Northumberland. Oxford, British Archaeological Reports, British Series 291.