Archaeologists have uncovered a preserved hilltop settlement following a major excavation at Harden Quarry in the Cheviot Hills straddling the Anglo-Scottish border.
The excavation unearthed the remains of ancient roundhouse platforms, early fields, and clearance cairns – piles of stone built to clear land for cultivation by farmers.
Together, such features indicate that communities lived, farmed and buried their dead more than 4,000 years ago in the Cheviot uplands, far earlier than previously thought.
Archaeologists also found burial cairns, including a complex monument staged over several phases, and two smaller cairns that contained a stone cist, or grave box, that once held a human burial.
Recent radiocarbon dating has placed the site to 2400 BC, around the start of the Bronze Age. Pottery from a Beaker vessel and a cist burial also indicate the presence of people on the site from this early period.
Clive Waddington, Managing Director of Archaeological Research Services Ltd, confirmed that the finds are transformative for understanding the region’s prehistory.
“We still don’t know that much about how people were living in the Bronze Age, particularly in Northumberland. What’s exciting about the discoveries here is that we have almost a full 360-degree view on those early people’s lives. We’ve got where they are living, where they are burying their dead close to the gods, and we have the landscape in which they are farming, which is rare in archaeology,” said Waddington.
Planning permission for an extension to the existing quarry was granted in 2022, following a full assessment of archaeological potential within the area.
A comprehensive scheme of archaeological investigation and recording was agreed as a condition of planning approval. The excavation was carried out by Archaeological Research Services Ltd and monitored by Northumberland National Park Authority.
Sources : Archaeological Research Services Ltd
