523 



Notes on Urns and Cists found at Amble, Northumber- 

 land, in 1883 and 1884. Plates in. and iv. By George 

 H. Thompson, Alnwick. 



In the montli of February 1883, while the workmen were 

 baring the top of the rock at a quarry at Amble, situated on the 

 sea shore and to the south of the village, they came upon a Cist 

 containing a human skull and a quantity of bones. The latter 

 crumbled away rapidly on being exposed to the air, but the 

 skull, owing probably to its having been nearly covered with 

 sand which had drifted into the grave, was in a fairly good state 

 of preservation, except the left side, the lower part being nearly 

 gone, and having a gash in it which might have been mistaken 

 for a wound received in battle, but which had been caused by 

 the point of the labourer's shovel. Not being aware of the im- 

 portance of what had been discovered, it was more from accident 

 than design that the skull was preserved, and that I became 

 aware of it some months afterwards. I found that the Cist had 

 measured somewhere about six feet in length, by two feet in 

 width, and the same in depth. Two slabs formed the sides, two 

 more the ends, and one the cover. They had been procured from 

 the sandstone beds on the sea shore, the edges being worn and 

 rounded off by the action of the water. They rested on a bed of 

 clay lying on the sandstone, and were covered to a depth of eight 

 feet, by, first a large quantity of boulder stones also gathered 

 from the sea shore, then by the sea sand which had drifted over 

 them, and lastly by a thin mould bearing the usual sea-side 

 vegetation. The size of the bones indicated a very tall man, 

 and were lying together in the middle of the grave, shewing 

 that the legs had been drawn up towards the body in the way 

 in which such remains are frequently found ; and also that it 

 had been laid on its left side. A few pieces of the ribs from five 

 to six inches in length, and what had apparently been finger 

 joints, were also found. The skull (Plate iv. fig. 1.) is of the 

 brachycephalic type and corresponds very nearly to one found 

 at Ilderton in 1863, and described in the Natural History Trans- 

 actions of Northumberland and Durham, Vol. I. part ir. p. 145, 

 by Dr Greenwell. Allowing for the imperfection before men- 

 tioned the circumference is twenty-one and a-half inches, the 



