Early Bronze Age burials at Windmill Fields, Ingleby Barwick, Stockton on Tees

Tees Archaeology

Contents 1. Summary ............................................................................................................3 2. The Ingleby Barwick find....................................................................................4 2.1 The site...........................................................................................................4 2.2 Discovery........................................................................................................4 2.3 The excavation and finds.................................................................................6 2.4 The significance of the find..............................................................................9 2.4.1 Date ........................................................................................................9 2.4.2 Location..................................................................................................9 2.4.3 Finds .......................................................................................................9 2.4.4 Burial traditions.......................................................................................9 2.4.5 Monumentality ........................................................................................9 3. Assessment of the results of the excavation .......................................................10 3.1 Site archive ...................................................................................................10 3.1.1 Excavation records................................................................................10 3.1.2 Specialist reports...................................................................................11 3.1.3 Finds .....................................................................................................11 3.1.4 Administration.......................................................................................11 3.2 Assessment of the human remains .................................................................11 3.2.1 Osteoarchaeological report (Appendix 1, p. 15 )....................................11 3.2.2 Stable isotope research (Appendix 4, p. 26)...........................................11 3.4 Assessment of the environmental potential of the site (Appendix 2, p. 18) .....11 3.5 Assessment of the finds .................................................................................12 3.5.1 Conservation report (Appendix 3, p. 22)................................................12 3.5.2 Research potential (Appendix 5, p. 27) ..................................................12 4. Project proposal................................................................................................13 5. Project aims and objectives ...............................................................................14 5.1 Dating...........................................................................................................14 5.2 Population study ...........................................................................................14 5.3 Examination of the status of the individuals and the site.................................14 5.4 Examination of the cultural transition represented by the find ........................14 5.5 Dissemination of the results of the project; archiving .....................................14 6. Methods statement............................................................................................15 6.1 Dating (objective 5.1) ...................................................................................15 6.2 Examination of the human remains (objective 5.2).........................................15 6.2.1 Osteoarchaeological report....................................................................15 6.2.2 Stable isotope research ..........................................................................15 6.3 Examination of the finds (objective 5.3) ........................................................15 6.3.1 Metal and jet objects .............................................................................15 6.3.2 Stone objects and pottery ......................................................................16 6.3.3 Research and reconstruction..................................................................16 6.4 Comparative study and synthesis (for status and cultural transition, 5.4) ........16 6.5 Dissemination (objective 5.5) ........................................................................16 References................................................................................................................17

1.

Summary

A salvage excavation was carried out on a building site south of Stockton at the end of 1996. Five individual burials were found, together with a wooden cist containing the remains of two other adults, and a secondary deposit in one of the graves. The burials were associated with Beaker pottery, and two of the individual burials were accompanied by high-status finds of stone, jet and copper alloy, which suggest a date in the Early Bronze Age. Burials of this period are extremely rare in the region, and it has hitherto been assumed that lowland sites such as this one were unoccupied in the EBA. The finds assemblage is unparalleled in northern England. The collection of metal objects, and the presence at the same site of single-grave burial and the communal deposition of excarnated remains, makes this a discovery of European significance. The find has the potential to throw light on the date of settlement of this area, on the change from communal to individual burial traditions, on networks of trade, exchange and cultural contact, and on the Neolithic / Bronze Age transition. A programme of post-excavation work is proposed: this will lead to the publication of a journal article and a popular leaflet on the site and the transfer of the finds to the local museum.

2.

The Ingleby Barwick find

2.1 The site

Ingleby Barwick is a very large housing development on the southern edge of Stockton on Tees (Fig. 1). Windmill Fields is an area being developed by Bryant Homes on the north-western edge of Ingleby Barwick, beside the valley of the river Leven, a tributary of the Tees (NZ 4460 1255, SMR no. 3536). The site is at an elevation of 30m; the land is undulating and the soils are developed on boulder clay. In the immediate area of the find the boulder clay is overlain by well-sorted fine sands, gravels and clays, which provide a better drained soil than is seen elsewhere in the district. There has been little archaeological work in Ingleby Barwick, as most of the planning permissions were granted before PPG16. Evaluations have found the stakeholes of a fence were found with a scatter of flint implements and Iron Age pottery at Site P, Village 3 (Fig. 1 A: Adams & Carne 1995), and a small quantity of flint was collected from Village 4 North (Fig. 1 B: ASUD 1996). There is an extensive area of Iron Age / Romano-British cropmarks at Quarry Farm, north of the site (Fig. 1 D: Heslop 1984).

2.2 Discovery
Builders cutting a new road found human bones in their spoil on Friday 29th November 1996, and the police and Tees Archaeology were called to the site. Initial examination found that two individual burials (Sk. 1 & 2), probably crouched, had been disturbed by the JCB (Fig. 3); all of the bone of Sk.1 and much of Sk. 2 was recovered from the spoil heap. A piece of Beaker with encircling incised lines was picked up at the same time. Clearance of the surrounding area revealed a large oval pit which contained a rectangular block of fill defined by dark stains, interpreted as the remains of planks. Excavation of this timber structure uncovered two groups of human

Figure 1 Location of the site and of other prehistoric finds from Ingleby Barwick

bones (Sk. 3 & 4), separated by a thin layer of soil; each contained a skull and a few long bones, and one (Sk. 4), a pelvis. These individuals may have been excarnated before being placed in the timber cist. When the fill of the construction pit was removed a group of four stakeholes was found; these defined the edge of the presumed plank-built burial chamber. Near this pit the fill of an individual grave was seen in the section of the road cutting (Fig. 2). This grave contained the skeleton of an adult (Sk. 5) in a crouched position; at

the feet was a fine polished stone mace-head. This is made of a micro-diorite or gabbro, and has a central shaft-hole.

cist

construction pit

mace-head

Figure 2 Part of the site during excavation. In the foreground is the single burial Sk. 5: the road cutting has removed part of the pelvis and the left heel, but missed the mace-head at the feet. In the background is the excavated construction pit of the timber cist.

2.3 The excavation and finds

Following these discoveries, an agreement was reached with the builders and funding obtained from English Heritage for a two-week salvage excavation. An area of about 230m2 was stripped and cleaned, and two more graves, each containing crouched burials, were found (Fig. 3). Truncation by ploughing and construction work had removed the upper parts of all of the features, so there is no stratigraphic connection

between any of the graves. The pit containing the cist was markedly deeper than the individual graves. The plough-damage appears to have moved material from the graves in a NW-SE direction. Some bone from Sk. 7 and Sk. 8 was found to have been moved up to 0.7m to the south-east from the burials, and it is thought that Beaker sherds found just south-east of the grave of Sk. 5 (the mace-head burial) were formerly in that grave. An unusual feature of two burials (Sk. 5 and Sk. 7) was the presence in each fill of a single lump of a heavy rounded dark brown mineral, which is thought to be haematite. This is not a material which is naturally found in the area. One grave (Sk. 7) was badly disturbed by later activity; the other was a richly-equipped burial (Sk. 6) with a secondary deposit of an adult skull and long bones (Sk. 8) within the fill. This secondary deposit was unaccompanied. Excavation of the equipped burial was carried out on site as far as was practicable. Three V-perforated jet buttons were found near the neck, and a plain copper alloy bangle on one forearm. The discovery of large amounts of copper-alloy material around the hands, combined with short winter working days and frosty nights on site, led to a decision to remove the torso for excavation at the conservation laboratory in the Department of Archaeology, Durham University. A block of soil was frozen solid in situ with dry ice and taken away for Xray examination. The X-ray revealed a second bangle on the other arm, together with a number of tubular metal beads. The block was excavated in the laboratory by Jennifer Jones. In this process the two bangles were removed, and 41 tubular beads, 25 Vperforated jet buttons, one biconical jet bead and 79 very small jet rings were found. These small rings were found in a fairly restricted area near the left shoulder. During excavation it was noticed that the heads of Sk. 2, 5, 6, and 7 appeared to be aligned on the highest point of the site. This is not a pronounced feature, but there is an appreciable fall for some distance in all directions from this point, which is just southeast of the cist. The excavated area is very unlikely to represent the full extent of the burial ground. However, no burials were seen in the road section opposite the cist and the mace-head burial, nor were any features visible between the buildings being erected on the west side of the new road. Further expansion of the site to the east was not possible because of buildings and stockpiles, but this area had in any case been very significantly disturbed but construction work and it is unlikely that burials as close to the surface as those examined by Tees Archaeology would have survived. Despite keen interest from the building workers, there were no reports of other bones being found. The Windmill Fields find has raised a good deal of local interest, and has been taken up by the makers of Julian Richards new BBC television series Meet the Ancestors. Because of their interest, the high-precision dating of bones from the equipped burials has already begun.

Figure 3 Excavated features

2.4 The significance of the find

2.4.1 Date The date suggested by the finds is in the Early Bronze Age. Burials of this period are extremely rare in the region. The Windmill Fields site provides the first opportunity to obtain radiocarbon dates for early settlement of the clay lowlands of the Tees Valley, and for an unusually high-status metalwork assemblage. 2.4.2 Location The presence of a cemetery implies that there was a settlement in the vicinity. Hitherto it has generally been thought that EBA settlements in this region were confined to higher ground, where woodland was thinner and easier to clear. There have been indications in the recent past that this picture is a result of the inability of air photography and geophysical techniques to pick up sites on the boulder clay, rather than a true representation of the Bronze Age settlement pattern; the Windmill Fields find is an important addition to our knowledge of this subject. Since the work at Ingleby Barwick an evaluation has revealed a possible settlement site, with a cremation in a pot, less than 0.7km away at Little Maltby Farm (Fig. 1C: ASUD 1997). 2.4.3 Finds Though small, the finds assemblage is varied, of very high quality, and indicative of the importance of its owners. There are close parallels with Scottish discoveries, particularly the Migdale hoard (Fig. 4: Anderson 1901). Metalwork of this date is extremely rare in this region. Jet objects are less uncommon, but the large and relatively undisturbed group from Windmill Fields will be of considerable help in the study of how these objects were used. The presence of Beaker is also uncommon in this area, outside excavations of burial mounds, and the discovery of sherds with the burials at Ingleby Barwick is an important addition to the regional corpus. 2.4.4 Burial traditions The presence of furnished burials in single graves on the same site as communal burials of excarnated remains is highly significant, and it is possible that the use of this cemetery spans the traditions of the late Neolithic and Early Bronze Age periods. 2.4.5 Monumentality The apparently intentional grouping of graves and cist suggests recognition of and respect for a significant point over a period of time and despite a change in cultural traditions. There was no sign of any earthwork or other feature at the high point, but given the gentle relief of the site and the long period of later cultivation, this is not at all surprising.

3.

Assessment of the results of the excavation

3.1 Site archive

3.1.1 Excavation records These consist of the context and skeleton record sheets, the site drawings and photographs, the survey plots and the site notebook. All of the paper archives have been security copied and the copies deposited in the Tees Archaeology secure store.

Figure 4 The Migdale Hoard. This group of jet and bronze objects was found in a cist at Loch Migdale, Sutherland, before 1901. Parallels with the Windmill Fields find include the ribbed and plain bracelets (3-10), the tubular beads (11-53), and the conical jet buttons (62-67). From Inventaria Archaeologica, GB. 26, 19

3.1.2 Specialist reports A report on the environmental samples was commissioned immediately after excavation was completed. Other specialists have supplied the assessment reports included in the appendices or have been consulted informally. 3.1.3 Finds The metal and jet finds are at the Conservation Laboratory at the Department of Archaeology, Durham University. The human bones are at the offices of Suffolk County Archaeology Service, pending further work. All other material is at the offices of Tees Archaeology. 3.1.4 Administration Assessment reports from specialists, some documentary source material and two files of correspondence and related material are kept by Tees Archaeology.

3.2 Assessment of the human remains

3.2.1 Osteoarchaeological report (Appendix 1, p. 15 ) The human bone assemblage is of a reasonable size and, despite the broken state of many bones, is suitable for osteoarchaeological analysis. The assemblage should provide useful data on the age, sex, physical attributes and pathology of this group of people. The bones will also provide material for dating and stable isotope analysis. Simon Mays has suggested that DNA analysis on these bones would be unlikely to produce useful results, because of the poor survival of the material as well as the lack of knowledge of the variability of mitochondrial DNA in prehistoric populations. 3.2.2 Stable isotope research (Appendix 4, p. 26) Stable isotope study will indicate the survival of collagen in the bone, and so provide a check on the reliability of the radiocarbon dates. The technique also has the potential to show the proportions of marine and terrestrial food consumed by the individuals buried at Windmill Fields. Informal contact with Simon Mays suggests that this analysis should be carried out on five burials.

3.4 Assessment of the environmental potential of the site (Appendix 2, p. 18)

The sandy free-draining nature of the soil has given rise to conditions that are not favourable to the preservation of organic materials. As a result, the quantity of plant material and pollen recovered from the samples was small, though the presence of a variety of tree species was detectable. As a result of the absence of charred material and the decay of other organic remains, the assessment report recommends that no further environmental work be carried out.

3.5 Assessment of the finds

3.5.1 Conservation report (Appendix 3, p. 22) The excavation of the freeze-lifted block has been a slow process, because of the large number of poorly-preserved finds contained in it. Conservation work has been started on the very fragile jet buttons and beads, to prevent further damage. One tubular bead has been extracted whole, and a large amount of material is available for X-ray fluorescence (XRF) analysis. 3.5.2 Research potential (Appendix 5, p. 27) The finds offer a rare opportunity to study a large assemblage of jet objects from a single context, and a useful addition to the small quantity of Beaker finds from the region. The metalwork is a particularly important discovery as little metalwork of Bronze Age date is ever found in the region: the opportunity to date such a find is also very significant. The Ingleby Barwick discovery has the potential of contributing substantially to the existing record of the later Neolithic and the Early Bronze Age in the region where a wealth of monuments is not complemented by an abundance of artefactual evidence. Beyond that, however, the Ingleby Barwick burials have the capacity to contribute to the analysis of artefactual remains which are significant in a northern European context, and to the further understanding of the Neolithic / Bronze Age transition, increasingly seen as a critical period in European prehistory.

4.

Project proposal

It is proposed to carry out a programme of post-excavation work on the material and information recovered from Windmill Fields. This will result in the publication of an article on the find and its significance for studies of the late Neolithic and Early Bronze Age in the north of England, and in the production of a free leaflet about the find for local distribution. The finds will be conserved and transferred to Stockton on Tees Museums Service.

5.

Project aims and objectives

5.1 Dating
It is intended to date the burials as precisely as possible, because of their association with important finds, and so that the period of use of the burial ground can be judged.

5.2 Population study

Information about the age, sex, pathology, injuries, and dietary habits of the population will be collected.

5.3 Examination of the status of the individuals and the site

Information about the status of the individuals and the community represented by the Windmill Fields burials will be sought from the evidence of the finds assemblage and the human remains.

5.4 Examination of the cultural transition represented by the find

The project will aim to find and discuss any relevant parallel cases of equipped singlegrave burial and of excarnation and communal deposition in the local, national, and European region.

5.5 Dissemination of the results of the project; archiving

The results of the excavation and analysis will be published in academic and popular forms. Suitable accounts of the work will be deposited in the Sites and Monuments Record and with the NMR: the finds and the site archive will be transferred to the local museum.

6.

Methods statement

6.1 Dating (objective 5.1)

Dating this site will not be simple, as there are problems with the calibration curve for the dating of the Early Bronze Age: there are also taphonomic difficulties connected with the dating of excarnated remains, which may have been lying about for some considerable time before their final deposition. Despite the latter point, dating of the two burials from the cist is well worth while, as much of the importance of the Windmill Fields find lies in the co-incidence of burial rituals here: evidence about the chronological spread of the overlap between the traditions is crucial to the sites interpretation. The dating will be carried out through the Ancient Monuments Laboratory (AML). Two high-precision dates, from the furnished burials, have already been commissioned from the Belfast radiocarbon laboratory. This was arranged through the AML so that the results can be used in the BBC television programme Meet the Ancestors. The date of the excarnated remains could be satisfactorily determined by the accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) method, given the taphonomic uncertainties outlined above. This could be done in about six months.

6.2 Examination of the human remains (objective 5.2)

6.2.1 Osteoarchaeological report The bones will be examined by Sue Anderson of Suffolk County Archaeology Service. The report will provide information about age, sex, physical attributes and pathology of the people. It is possible that recording of some non-metric traits could provide evidence of family relationships within the group. 6.2.2 Stable isotope research Research on stable isotopes of carbon and nitrogen will be carried out by Michael Richards of the Oxford Radiocarbon Accelerator Unit. This may give an indication of the proportions of marine food eaten by the individuals, and the relative importance of meat and plant protein in their diet. This study will also indicate how well the bone collagen has survived at the site, which is important as a check on the reliability of the radiocarbon dates. The results of the study will be discussed for the site report by Simon Mays of the Ancient Monuments Laboratory.

6.3 Examination of the finds (objective 5.3)

Work will be carried out by Jennifer Jones, English Heritage Contract Conservator at the Department of Archaeology, Durham University. 6.3.1 Metal and jet objects The bangles will be X-rayed for evidence of their form and decoration, and cleaned and consolidated as necessary. The sole complete tubular copper-alloy bead, and a couple of others which are not too badly decayed, will be cleaned, consolidated, and examined

for possible surface treatments. All of the beads will be analysed by XRF for information about alloys and manufacture. The conservation of the jet objects will be completed, and non-destructive analysis will be carried out to try to establish whether or not the material is jet. The buttons will be compared with other groups from the region, such as the Street House collection. Work will be carried out to reconstruct possible forms for the clothing and the jewellery of its owner. 6.3.2 Stone objects and pottery The sources of the stone used for the mace-head, and of the ?haematite lumps found in grave fills, will be investigated by non-destructive means, and parallels will be sought from other areas and contexts. It is unlikely that a certain identification of the source of the stone mace-head can be identified without drilling a sample or taking a thin section; it is not proposed that either of these should be done. The pottery will be examined by Blaise Vyner, and the small quantity of flint by Peter Rowe. 6.3.3 Research and reconstruction Parallels for the burials and the grave goods will be sought. The presence of relatively rare high-status objects with two of the people in individual graves shows that this is an unusual group of people. Research on the dress and jewellery of the person buried with the copper-alloy and jet objects will also be carried out, for comparison with known parallels from the continent (eg. Ukrainian examples, Barber 1991, 256). This work will be of considerable value in the examination of the status of one of the individuals buried at Ingleby Barwick, in comparative work, and for the eventual presentation of the results of the Windmill Fields excavation.

6.4 Comparative study and synthesis (for status and cultural transition, 5.4)
Information gathered in the processes described above, together with the site data, will form the basis of the descriptive part of the final site report. Parallels and comparative sites will be sought, particularly where there are similar finds, and where there is evidence of similar processes of cultural transition. Comparisons will be drawn with known sites where excarnation was practiced, such as the Neolithic mortuary monument at Street House, about 30km to the east of Ingleby Barwick (Vyner 1984).

6.5 Dissemination (objective 5.5)

An article on the discovery and its significance will be prepared. A proposal and summary have been sent to the Editor of PPS and a reasonably encouraging response obtained. Because of the strong links with Scottish finds, a note will also be written for submission to PSAS. A popular illustrated leaflet about the site will be produced for distribution in the area; a contribution towards the cost of this publication has been offered by the developers of the site. The finds and the site archive, together with any material from the BBC which might be useful for interpretation, will be transferred to Stockton on Tees Museums Service for display.

References
Adams, M, & Carne, P, 1995 Excavations at Site P, Village 3, Ingleby Barwick, Cleveland, DAJ 11, 19-33 Anderson, J, 1901 Proc Soc Ant Scot XXXV, 266 Anderson, S, unpub. The human skeletal remains from Walworth Barrow, Andover; report for Test Valley Archaeological Trust / Hampshire County Museums Service ASUD 1996 An archaeological evaluation at Ingleby Barwick, Village 4, Fields 16, 18, 19. Unpublished evaluation report by Archaeological Services University of Durham, ref. 415 ASUD 1997 Little Maltby Farm, Ingleby Barwick, Teesside. Unpublished evaluation report by Archaeological Services University of Durham, ref. 434 Barber, E, 1991 Prehistoric Textiles: the Development of Cloth in the Neolithic and Bronze Ages, Princeton UP, USA Cameron, A, n.d. The Human Bones from Wilsford Down, Salisbury Plain, AML Report 4488 Cameron, A, unpub. Report in AML site file Cornwall, I, 1976 In Vatcher, F and Vatcher, H, Proc Prehist Soc 42: 263-292 Dawes, J, 1979 In Dent, J S, Yorks Archaeol J 51, 23-39 Dawes, J, 1984 In Watts, L and Rahtz, P, Cowlam Wold round barrows, York University Archaeological Publications No. 3 Denston, C, 1968 In Stead, I, Yorks Archaeol J 40: 129-42 Denston, C, 1976 Human bones, in Petersen, F, The Excavation of an Early Bronze Age cemetery at Pin Farm, Gazeley, Procs Suffolk Inst Archaeol 33 (1): 1946 Denston, C, 1978 In Martin, E, Procs. Cambridge Antiq Soc 1978: 1-21 Fawcett, 1938 In Clifford, EM, Proc Prehist Soc 4: 214-18 Heslop, D H, 1984 Initial excavations at Ingleby Barwick, Cleveland, DAJ 1, 23-34 Jelley, D, 1984 The jet buttons, in Vyner 1984, 177-182 Marsden, B, 1982 Notes on bones in Derbys Archaeol J 102: 23-32 Mays, S, 1988a AML Report 98/88 Mays, S, 1988b AML Report 110/88 McKinley, J, forthcoming? Report on skeletons from Twyford Down (M3 Bar End to Compton) Powers, R, Brothwell, D, Newell, R, & Cornwall, I, 1967 in Proc Prehist Soc 33 Parker-Pearson, M, 1993 Bronze Age Britain, Batsford/English Heritage Sockett, E, 1971 A Bronze Age barrow at Mount Pleasant, near Normanby, Yorks Archaeol J 43, 33-38 Spratt, DA, 1992 Prehistoric and Roman Archaeology of North-East Yorkshire, CBA Res Rep 104 Vyner, BE, 1984 The Excavation of a Neolithic Cairn at Street House, Loftus, Cleveland, Proc Prehist Soc 50, 151-195 Vyner, BE, 1988 The Street House Wossit: the excavation of a late Neolithic and Early Bronze Age palisaded ritual monument at Street House, Loftus, Cleveland, Proc Prehist Soc 54, 173-122 Watts, S, 1992 An investigation into the composition of shale to determine factors affecting the stability of archaeological shale artefacts (unpublished dissertation for MA in Conservation of Artefacts, Dept. of Archaeology, University of Durham) Wells, C, 1977 In Donaldson, P, Antiq J. 62: 197-231 Wells, C, 1982 In Green, C, et al., Procs Dorset Nat Hist and Archaeol Soc104: 39-58 Wells, C, 1984 In Green, C and Rollo-Smith, S, Proc Prehist Soc 50: 255-318 Whittle, A, 1997 Europe in the Neolithic: the Creation of New Worlds, Cambridge