Heathery Burn Cave is a

cave A cave or cavern is a natural void in the ground, specifically a space large enough for a human to enter. Caves often form by the weathering of rock and often extend deep underground. The word ''cave'' can refer to smaller openings such as sea ...

near

Stanhope, County Durham Stanhope is a market town and civil parish in the County Durham district, in the ceremonial county of Durham, England. It lies on the River Wear between Eastgate and Frosterley, in the north-east of Weardale. The main A689 road over the Penni ...

, England, in which a large collection of Late

Bronze Age The Bronze Age is a historic period, lasting approximately from 3300 BC to 1200 BC, characterized by the use of bronze, the presence of writing in some areas, and other early features of urban civilization. The Bronze Age is the second pri ...

weapons and tools was discovered and excavated between 1859 and 1872. Stanhope Burn below Steward Shield Meadow Farm - geograph

Location

The cave was in a ravine formed by Stanhope

Burn A burn is an injury to skin, or other tissues, caused by heat, cold, electricity, chemicals, friction, or ultraviolet radiation (like sunburn). Most burns are due to heat from hot liquids (called scalding), solids, or fire. Burns occur mainl ...

, a small tributary of the

River Wear The River Wear (, ) in North East England rises in the Pennines and flows eastwards, mostly through County Durham to the North Sea in the City of Sunderland. At long, it is one of the region's longest rivers, wends in a steep valley through th ...

.Greenwell, W. 1894. "Antiquities of the Bronze Age found in the Heathery Burn Cave, County Durham", ''Archaeologia'' (2nd Series, 4), 87–114. The cave itself was about a mile north of the confluence of the burn and the river, on the left bank. The floor of the cave was above the level of the burn, and was a tourist destination before the quarrying of the

limestone Limestone ( calcium carbonate ) is a type of carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of . Limestone forms whe ...

for smelting purposes. The cave has subsequently been destroyed.Britton, D. 1971. "The Heathery Burn Cave Revisited: Towards the Reconstruction of a Well-Known Archaeological Discovery", ''The British Museum Quarterly'' 35 (1/4), 20–38.

Geology

The geology of the area forms part of the

Yoredale Group Wensleydale is the dale or upper valley of the River Ure on the east side of the Pennines, one of the Yorkshire Dales in North Yorkshire, England. It is one of only a few Yorkshire Dales not currently named after its principal river, but t ...

with subordinate

sandstone Sandstone is a clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate grains. Sandstones comprise about 20–25% of all sedimentary rocks. Most sandstone is composed of quartz or feldspar (both silicates) ...

and

argillaceous Clay minerals are hydrous aluminium phyllosilicates (e.g. kaolin, Al2 Si2 O5( OH)4), sometimes with variable amounts of iron, magnesium, alkali metals, alkaline earths, and other cations found on or near some planetary surfaces. Clay minerals ...

rocks.

Discovery

The earliest archaeological discoveries in the cave were made in the 1750s or 1760s, though the full extent of the site did not become known until later. Primarily, the material was discovered progressively in the latter half of the 19th century as a result of quarrying on the site. The finds were recorded and catalogued by

William Greenwell Canon William Greenwell, (23 March 1820 – 27 January 1918) was an English archaeologist and Church of England priest. Early life William Greenwell was born 23 March 1820 at the estate known as Greenwell Ford near Lanchester, County Durham, E ...

between 1859 and 1872, who described them as "one of the most valuable discoveries ever made in Britain of weapons, implements, ornaments, and other things belonging to the Bronze Age". The objects from the cave are dispersed across several museums in the United Kingdom; the largest collection is in the

British Museum The British Museum is a public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is among the largest and most comprehensive in existence. It docum ...

, but material is also stored in the

Ashmolean Museum The Ashmolean Museum of Art and Archaeology () on Beaumont Street, Oxford, England, is Britain's first public museum. Its first building was erected in 1678–1683 to house the cabinet of curiosities that Elias Ashmole gave to the University of ...

and

Yorkshire Museum The Yorkshire Museum is a museum in York, England. It was opened in 1830, and has five permanent collections, covering biology, geology, archaeology, numismatics and astronomy. History The museum was founded by the Yorkshire Philosophical Soci ...

implements are few in number from

Weardale Weardale is a dale, or valley, on the east side of the Pennines in County Durham, England. Large parts of Weardale fall within the North Pennines Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB) – the second-largest AONB in England and Wales. T ...

; the only other examples from near

Wolsingham Wolsingham is a market town in Weardale, County Durham, England. It is situated by the River Wear, between Crook and Stanhope. History Wolsingham sits at the confluence of the River Wear and Waskerley Beck. It is a small settlement and one of ...

and

Eastgate Eastgate may refer to: Places Canada * Eastgate, Alberta, Canada * Eastgate, British Columbia, Canada United Kingdom * Eastgate, County Durham, England * Eastgate, Norfolk, England * Eastgate, Peterborough, Cambridgeshire, England * Eastgate, C ...

Finds from the Cave

Over two hundred Late

objects have been located from the Heathery Burn Cave.Britton, D. 1968. ''Late Bronze Age Finds in the Heathery Burn Cave, Co. Durham'' (Invetaria Archaeologia 9th Set, GB.55), London.

Gold

Two gold objects are present in the assemblage – one bracelet and one unidentified ornament taking the form of a penannular, convex disc with a triangular section. Gold working began in Britain during the early part of the

Copper alloy

A significant quantity of copper alloy weapons and tools forms the major part of this assemblage, including socketed axeheads, spearheads, casting moulds, fittings, rings, swords, and a bucket.

Ceramic

The discovery of the ceramic remains was recounted by

: "a large quantity of fragmentary pieces (of pottery), principally small, was discovered in all parts of the cave, but the greater portion has unfortunately not been preserved." The true extent of the ceramic remains from the cave is now lost, along with the find spots within the cave complex.

Bone

Objects carved from bone include spatulas and toggles. A handle was made from

red deer The red deer (''Cervus elaphus'') is one of the largest deer species. A male red deer is called a stag or hart, and a female is called a hind. The red deer inhabits most of Europe, the Caucasus Mountains region, Anatolia, Iran, and parts of wes ...

antler, and pendants were made from horse and dog teeth. Pointed bone tools were carved from sheep

tibia The tibia (; ), also known as the shinbone or shankbone, is the larger, stronger, and anterior (frontal) of the two bones in the leg below the knee in vertebrates (the other being the fibula, behind and to the outside of the tibia); it connects ...

e or roe deer

metapodial Metapodials are long bones of the hand (metacarpals) and feet (metatarsal The metatarsal bones, or metatarsus, are a group of five long bones in the foot, located between the tarsal bones of the hind- and mid-foot and the phalanges of the toes. ...

s. Shells had been perforated for use as pendants, using shells from ''Nucella lapillus'' (

dog whelk The dog whelk, dogwhelk, or Atlantic dogwinkle (''Nucella lapillus'') is a species of predatory sea snail, a carnivorous marine gastropod in the family Muricidae, the rock snails. ''Nucella lapillus'' was originally described by Carl Linnaeus in ...

), and ''

Littorina obtusata ''Littorina obtusata'', common name the flat periwinkle, is a species of sea snail, a marine gastropod mollusk in the family (biology), family Littorinidae, the winkles or periwinkles. Distribution This marine species occurs wherever brown sea ...

'' – both of which species had to be transported from the coast. Human remains were also found in the cave.Huxley, T.H. 1862. "Notes upon human remains from the Valley of the Trent, and from the Heathery Burn Cave, Durham", ''The Geologist'' 5, pp. 201–204.

Flint

Flint Flint, occasionally flintstone, is a sedimentary cryptocrystalline form of the mineral quartz, categorized as the variety of chert that occurs in chalk or marly limestone. Flint was widely used historically to make stone tools and start fir ...

tools form only a small part of the assemblage. Of the 196 objects in the

from Heathery Burn Cave, only four are made from worked flint: one barbed-and-tanged arrowhead, and three flakes.

References

External links

Heathery Burn Cave – Megalithic.co.ukYoung, R. 1984. PhD Thesis – ''Aspects of the Prehistoric Archaeology of the Wear Valley, County Durham''
{{DEFAULTSORT:Heathery Burn Cave Caves of County Durham Bronze Age sites in County Durham Stanhope, County Durham