Transactions of the Cumberland & Westmorland Antiquarian & Archaeological Society 3 (series 3)

Excavation of a flat cremation cemetery which used the naturally fissured limestone for burial of the cremated remains of between twelve and fifteen individuals, both male and female, ranging from a neonate child to a male of over forty-five years. At least half the burials were of more than one individual, often an adult and child together. At least four cremation burials had been placed in inverted collared urns and at least one other may have been in an organic container. Other finds included four flint fragments, a bone toggle and parts of two bone pins. The report examines the evidence from the excavation relating to funerary ritual, and surveys evidence of Bronze Age activity in the area. Three samples gave radiocarbon dates ranging between 2107--1747 cal BC, 1922--1637 BC and 2027--1741 BC.

Use of intensive survey methods in the area produced evidence of settlement patterns indicating continuity between the end of the second millennium BC and the first half of the first millennium BC, with some places showing signs of occupation from the Bronze Age through to the Roman period. An association of monuments with certain soil types was also shown, and a move towards heavier, acid soils in the Iron Age/Romano-British period.

A route for the road originally proposed by I A Richmond in 1947 is discussed with reference to undated, but possibly Roman, remains of an old road close to the line that Richmond suggested.

Notes on a late-sixteenth/early-seventeenth-century pioneer of Roman archaeology in Britain.

A study of the alignments of sunrise and sunset at the time of the midsummer and midwinter solstices and the equinox at Long Meg, Swinside, Castlerigg, Urswick and Mayburgh Henge.

Description of an unusual bronze rivetted dagger found by a local metal-detectorist.

Description of two sites found during a survey of the parish of Ponsonby. One, at Thornholme farm, was a walled enclosure with seven or eight hut circles, possibly of Late Bronze Age or Iron Age date; the other, at Dalegarth, was a farmstead deserted since the early-nineteenth century.

Discussion of the availability of limestone for mortar in the building of the Wall, and of its preparation.

Description of a decorated silver strap-end.

Discusses a hoard of between sixty and ninety gold and silver coins found in 1864 and recorded in papers of the Hall family.