On human and other remains found in a cavern near the Ryhope Colliery / by James W. Kirkby and George S. Brady.

  • Kirkby, James Walker, 1834-1901.
Date:
[1865?]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On human and other remains found in a cavern near the Ryhope Colliery / by James W. Kirkby and George S. Brady. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    ON A BARROW AT WARKSHAUGH. those animals. Part of the jaw and one of the cranial bones oi a fish were also found. These may all he supposed to have been brought there by human agency, or to have inhabited the cavern at the same time as man. But there were likewise many bones of small wild birds as well as of barn-door fowls, some of them with feathers still attached, and all evidently of quite recent oi’igin. Por these the fox must doubtless he held responsible. It will he seen that none of these remains necessarily indicate great antiquity. Even as belonging to the historical era they would scarcely appear to date many centuries hack. Had the human bones and shells not been present, the rest of the remains could easily have been accounted for by our looking upon the cave as an old fox-hole. We conclude, however, that the cave must, at some time or other, have been used by man as a place of resort—as is indicated by the burnt wood and remains of edible shell-fish—and afterwards, either by intention or accident, as a place of burial. We have evidence of the presence of not less than seven human beings, five of whom seem to have been males, one a female, and one a child. Why so many of our fellow creatures should have left their remains there, at a period which cannot but have been comparatively recent, is difficult to under- stand ; nor can we even venture to hazard a conjecture as regards this part of the subject. Bomb Hall. (Plate XV.) Among the numerous vestiges of the pre-historic vale-dwellers of the North Tyne, yet remaining, are several tumuli or barrows. At High Shield Green a group of such burial mounds takes the form of an ancient cemetery. They are clustered around a great central cairn on a lofty eminence, not far from several ancient British camps. In the autumn of last year (1864), six or seven of these barrows were carefully examined, including XV.— On the Opening and Examination of a Barrow of the British Period at Warhshaugh, North Tynedale. By the Rev. Geo.