V.—Antiquities of the Bronze Age found in the Heathery Burn Cave, county Durham

William Greenwell

doi:10.1017/S0261340900006494

V.—Antiquities of the Bronze Age found in the Heathery Burn Cave, county Durham

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 25 January 2012

William Greenwell

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The purpose of the present memoir is to place on record an account of what, in many respects, is one of the most valuable discoveries ever made in Britain of weapons, implements, ornaments, and other things belonging to the Bronze Age. Discoveries of objects of that period have usually consisted of a single article or more accidentally lost, of hoards of founders or vendors, secreted for one reason or another, and of the various sepulchral remains which have been found in barrows, cairns, or other places of burial. These all are of greater or less importance as illustrating the condition and habits of life of the people of that time, and the stage of cultivation and civilization to which they had attained. But the discovery with which this account is concerned possesses a very much higher value than that of any hoard of however great a number of articles, or of any series of objects which relate to a section only of daily life and occupation. It gives us, though perhaps in a lesser degree, much the same information that the lake dwellings of Switzerland and other countries have so abundantly supplied. “We possess, in fact, in the discovery about to be described a record in the very things themselves of the entire equipment of a family as it was possessed by them when they perished in their home, as I believe, by a sudden and unforseen catastrophe.

Type: Research Article
Information: Archaeologia , Volume 54 , Issue 1 , 1894 , pp. 87 - 114

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0261340900006494 [Opens in a new window]
Copyright: Copyright © The Society of Antiquaries of London 1894

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^{page 88 note a} Many records of these visits were left near the original entrance in names written in charcoal and cut into the rock on the sides of the cave.

^{page 88 note b} The letter (L) and all other letters refer to the plan.

^{page 89 note a} On the under side of the stalagmite were many impressions of leaves and twigs of trees. Among them those of the hazel were conspicuous, in some cases accompanied by the nut itself.

^{page 91 note a} Archaeologia Aeliana (Quarto Series), i. 13.

^{page 92 note a} Second Series, ii. 127.

^{page 92 note b} v. 34, 167.

^{page 92 note c} Archaeological Journal, xix. 358Google Scholar.

^{page 93 note a} In working the limestone from the surface the roof of the cave was everywhere removed, but at this place the floor was not quarried as it was in every other part.

^{page 92 note b} Engraved in The Geologist, v. 202.

^{page 96 note a} Some of the bronze articles were exhibited at a meeting of the Society of Antiquaries Jan. 20, 1873. See Proceedings, 2nd S. v. 426.

^{page 97 note a} Tate, History of Alnwick, 15; Archaeological Journal, xiii. 295Google Scholar.

^{page 97 note b} Wilde, Catalogue of Antiquities of Gold in the Museum of the Royal Irish Academy, p. 36, figs. 561, 562.

^{page 97 note c} Evans, Ancient Bronze Implements, 421.

^{page 97 note d} Evans, op. c. 417.

^{page 98 note a} See also Evans, l. c. 312, fig. 381

^{page 98 note b} Engraved also in Proceedings, 2nd S. i. 130.

^{page 98 note c} Evans, l. c. 205, 206, figs. 240, 243.

^{page 98 note d} Evans, l. c. 212.

^{page 98 note e} Evans, l. c. 212, fig. 252.

^{page 99 note a} Evans, l. c. 218, 219, where, as fig. 270, that from the cave is engraved.

^{page 99 note b} Evans, l. c. 109, fig. 110.

^{page 99 note c} Engraved also in Proceedings, 2nd S. ii. 130.

^{page 100 note a} Engraved, Evans, l. c. 185, fig. 219.

^{page 100 note b} Engraved, Evans, l. c. 172, fig. 202.

^{page 100 note c} Engraved, Evans, l. c. 166, fig. 191. Similar implements have been found in the Swiss Lake Dwellings, as well as in other places, Keller, ed. Lee, i. 145, ii. Pl. xxxvi. 1, 2.

^{page 101 note a} One of these (fig. 19) with a narrower head than ordinary is engraved in Proceedings, 2nd S. ii. 130.

^{page 101 note b} A similar one is engraved in Wilde, Catalogue of Antiquities of Bronze in the Museum of the Royal Irish Academy, 558, fig. 450.

^{page 101 note c} Similarly made pins occur in the Swiss lake dwellings, Keller, ed. Lee, i. 145, ii. Plate xxxiv., 14, 27.

^{page 101 note d} Similar armlets are noted in Evans, l. c. 381, 382.

^{page 101 note e} Engraved in Proceedings, 2nd S. ii. 130.

^{page 102 note a} Evans, l. c. 386.

^{page 102 note b} One is engraved in Proceedings, 2nd S. iii. 236.

^{page 103 note a} Engraved in Proceedings, 2nd S. iii. 237. One of the loops is wanting in the specimen figured.

^{page 103 note b} Archaeologia Aeliana (Quarto Series), i. 13, Pl. ii. 14.

^{page 103 note c} Keller, ed. Lec, i. 174, 175, 180, 244, 294, ii. Pls. lxxii. 1, 5, lxxiii. 1, c. 14.

^{page 103 note d} Evans, l. c. 401.

^{page 103 note e} Evans, l. c. 401. At p. 400 one very similar from Reach Fen is engraved as fig. 499.

^{page 104 note a} Evans, l. c. 391.

^{page 104 note b} Engraved in Proceedings, 2nd S. ii. 130.

^{page 104 note c} Evans, l. c. 412, 413, figs. 512, 513.

^{page 104 note d} Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, N. S. x. 36, where the caldron is figured.

^{page 105 note a} Evans, Ancient Stone Implements, 284, fig. 223; Greenwell, British Barrows, 41, fig. 31, 264.

^{page 106 note a} One very similar in shape but smaller is engraved in Evans, l. c. 419, fig. 384.

^{page 106 note b} A fragment of one of these armlets is engraved in Proceedings, 2nd S. ii. 130.

^{page 107 note a} An imperfect one is engraved in Proceedings, 2nd S. ii. 130.

^{page 107 note b} British Barrows, 215, 274.

^{page 107 note c} Keller, Lake Dwellings, ed. Lee, i. 30; engr. ii. Pl. xx. 16.

^{page 107 note d} One is engraved in Proceedings, 2nd S. ii. 130.

^{page 107 note e} One very similar, but not perforated, is engraved in British Barrows, 34, fig. 8.

^{page 108 note a} One is engraved in Proceedings, 2nd S. ii. 130.

^{page 109 note a} Keller, Lake Dwellings, ed. Lee, i. 174, 226; engr. ii. Pl. xliii. 1, 10, Pl. xlv. 3, 9. Several implements of deer's horn bearing a general resemblance to those from the cave were found, associated with various articles of the Early Iron Age, in Thor's Cave, near Wetton, Derbyshire. They have two perforations, one at the broader end of the tine extending transversely from the side to the end, the other being about a third of the length from the pointed end, and perforating the horn straight through. They are engraved on Plates 4 and 5 on Transactions of the Midland Scientific Association, Winter Session of 1864–5.

^{page 110 note a} I am indebted to Mr. A. Smith Woodward, of the Natural History Department of the British Museum, for the identification of the bones found in the cave.

^{page 111 note a} British Barrows, 110.

^{page 111 note b} Journal of the Ethnological Society, N. S. ii. 419.

^{page 111 note c} The Geologist, v. 204. At p. 202 is an engraving of a portion of a skull, a calvarium.

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V.—Antiquities of the Bronze Age found in the Heathery Burn Cave, county Durham

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