Archaeologia Aeliana Series 5

The paper reports the findings from an excavation on a cup and ring marked outcrop rock in Northumberland. The excavation revealed an initial phase of carving cup and ring motifs on outcropping bedrock that predated the Early Bronze Age by a length of time which is unknown but considered to be substantial. At what is believed on the basis of weathering to be a considerably later date, parts of the rock outcrop were quarried, presumably as part of a cairn building episode, and new motifs were carved onto the surfaces where rock had been removed. What appears to be a cist box, probably for an infant, was constructed between two quarried slabs, one with phase 1 carvings on its surface. A cairn was then piled over the cist and central rock dome, and a stone setting was made towards the top of the cairn which may have served as a grave for a secondary burial. This type of monument is typical of the Early Bronze Age and nearby sites have produced radiocarbon determinations dating towards the centuries around 2000 BC. The cairn directly overlay the cist as well as some of the phase 1 and phase 2 carvings. After the construction of the cairn the next structural event was the aligning of a Romano-British field boundary on the cairn and probably beyond. The excavation report is followed by a discussion that places the findings in a wider context, including preliminary interpretation of the site in relation to current thinking in British rock art studies.

The author reassesses F Simpson's 1931 contention that broad and narrow walls were used in milecastle construction; the contention is then used to reconstruct their building order. This reveals clusters of early, broad wall, milecastles adjacent to features which can be described as points of strategic importance. It is suggested that the unusual size of milecastles 47 and 48 is a consequence of their early construction, while the provision of large double barrack blocks within them is due to their construction prior to the fort decision. As well as broad and narrow gauge perimeter walls, the study reveals some evidence for a middle gauge. This was restricted to the completion of milecastles started to the broad standard and can be shown, through its relationship to Great Chesters, to predate the narrow gauge.

An archaeological evaluation and excavation at Stowell Street, Newcastle upon Tyne, revealed a sequence of archaeological deposits and features dating from the late medieval period to the nineteenth century. The site appears to have been an open area just to the east of the town wall and on the edge of the Lam Burn during the late medieval period. It became incorporated within garden plots, which were probably part of the Blackfriars land by the early post-medieval period. A building was constructed on the site by 1830 and this was extant until the latter half of the twentieth century.

Paper investigating the life and career of Alexander Davison (1750--1829), a Northumbrian contractor and government supplier, and close associate and friend of Lord Nelson. It traces the background to the Nelson obelisk erected by Davison in 1807 at Swarland, Northumberland, and examines the evidence for the `Battle-Park', representing the British fleet at the Battle of the Nile, which Davison also laid out at Swarland park. Davison's landscape legacy, both around his Swarland estate and adjacent to the Cheviots at Kirknewton, is described.

The author responds to the reply given by A Breeze (in Archaeologia Aeliana 33 (2004), pages61--4) to his original article (see Archaeologia Aeliana 30 (2002), pages 173--4), itself a critique of an article by Breeze (see Durham Archaeological Journal 16 (2001), pages 21--5).

Note on a single cup-marked stone recovered in 2002 during the archaeological evaluation of part of a rectilinear enclosure at Seaton Delaval, Northumberland. No datable material was recovered during the excavation, although the enclosure is typologically of a type assigned to the Iron Age or Romano-British period.