A HISTORY OF DURHAM 



Sherburn Hospital. — Ground axe, 5|- inches long, oval in section and with conical butt, in the 



collection of Dr. Sturge. 

 Stanley (parish of Brancepeth). — Well-made axe-hammer. 

 Sunderland (in the river Wear, above the bridge). — Axe-hammer beautifully made, in the museum 



of the Society of Antiquaries of Newcastle-upon-Tyne. 

 Sunderland (Millfield). — Large axe-hammer, perforated for handle, in the collection of Dr. Sturge. 



(Evans, Stone Imp/. 2nd ed. p. 194.) 

 Weardale (Cowshill). — Ground basalt axe, 9J inches long, in the collection of Dr. Sturge. (Evans, 



Stone Imp/. 2nd ed. p. 106.) 

 WoLsiNGHAM (Coves Houses). — A circular-perforated article of basalt, 3|- inches in diameter, in the 



collection of Dr. Sturge. (Evans, Stone Imp/. 2nd ed. p. 229.) 



The only burial-place which can be attributed to the neolithic period is 

 a barrow at Copt Hill, Houghton le Spring. It appears to have originally 

 been used for interments during the neolithic age. The original burials 

 consist of burnt bodies, and the way in which they had been burnt and the 

 manner of their deposit was of such a nature as to show they were of persons 

 living in the neolithic age. Secondary burials of the bronze age were also 

 found, one of which, that of a burnt body, was enclosed in a cinerary urn, 

 accompanied by a flint scraper. Near the surface was an Anglian burial of an 

 unburnt body in a cist of stone. 



The association of this series of burials, quite distinct in time, is not 

 probably to be accounted for by their having been of persons who were in any 

 way connected, or of any sacredness or sentiment attached to the place. A 

 mound had been thrown up as a memorial to people living in neolithic days, 

 who were buried there. Sometime afterwards bronze-age folk dwelling in the 

 locality had made use of an existing barrow for their own burials, and had 

 enlarged and altered the shape of the original mound ; and still later on, 

 actuated by the same motives, Anglian settlers had utilised a conspicuous barrow 

 as a convenient mode of making a monument for their own dead, without the 

 labour of erecting one. Such a continuance of the use of a burial mound 

 over different and distant times has occurred elsewhere. 



The Bronze Age 



The discovery of the uses of metal and the method of smelting and 

 working it indicates the beginning of a new era of human culture. It is 

 difficult to over-estimate the importance and value of this discovery. It must 

 have meant for stone-using man an advance as great as the general use of steam 

 or electricity in modern times. 



One of the most interesting discoveries in Durham of articles be- 

 longing to this age was made before the year 1812. A hoard of bronze 

 weapons and implements was found near Stanhope, in the valley of the 

 Wear, in the western part of the county. An account of the discovery, 

 written by the Rev. W. Wilson, rector of Wolsingham, and published by the 

 Society of Antiquaries of Newcastle-upon-Tyne ' in i 8 1 6, gives some interesting 

 particulars and some rather amusing speculations as to the nature of the several 

 components of the hoard. ' They were found,' writes the author ' by a 

 labourer, upwards of four years ago, in the parish of Stanhope, in the county 

 of Durham, under some large rough stones casually scattered upon the 



' Archeco/opa ^liana, 410. scr. i. 13-16. 

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