4,000 year old burial site discovered in Wooler
Tests show hotel site burial dates back thousands of years. Tony Henderson reports
Research has revealed that the burial of a young woman on the site of a Northumberland hotel took place around 4,000 years ago.
The cist burial – where slabs of sandstone were used to create a burial box – was discovered during conversion work on a barn at the Tankerville Arms Hotel in Wooler.
Tests have shown that the early Bronze Age burial was of a woman aged between 20 and 25. Her remains were accompanied by a knife with a flint blade.
“She is Wooler’s oldest resident,” said Roger Miket, one of the archaeologists involved in the burial excavation.
It is believed the cist would have been visible in the landscape for many years. This would explain the removal of the capstone covering of the chamber a century later to accommodate the cremated remains of two individuals – one an adult and the other aged between 13 and 17.
The absence of any material from the funeral pyre indicated that the cremated remains were carefully extracted for burial after the cremation.
“Bone from the cremation had been collected with great care,” said Mr Miket.
As work proceeded after the find, another cist was uncovered but as this would not have been disturbed by the building work, it has been left in place.
The first cist has been relocated in a corner of the hotel’s garden.
It is believed that the second discovery indicates the presence of a wider Bronze Age burial site.
“We could be looking at what was part of a much larger and more complex burial area. It may have been recognised as being a long-established site and people would have wanted to continue that tradition,” said Mr Miket.
The flint knife is similar to one found at nearby Doddington in the 19th century.
“The Tankerville knife is a multi-purpose tool and would have been the Swiss Army knife of its day, and a treasured possession,” said Mr Miket.
It is believed that the hotel building was constructed in the 18th century by the Earl of Tankerville to house guests visiting his seat at Chillingham Castle.
The Tankerville site is part of a concentration of cist burials stretching from the northern margin of the Cheviot Hilld, though the Wooler area, Akeld and where the River Glen meets the College Burn.
Recent excavations uncovered six early Bronze Age burials and cremations in a dig which preceded upgrading work on the site of Ponteland leisure centre .