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An Early Bronze Age Burial in a Boat-shaped Wooden Coffin from North-east Yorkshire

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 May 2014

H. W. Elgee  and
F. Elgee
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Extract

In 1937 the writers, with the help of members of the technical staff of I.C.I., Billingham, and of a W.E.A. Class on local prehistory, excavated Loose Howe, a large round barrow which, as shown on the Map (Fig. 1), stands above the head of Rosedale almost at the centre of the Eastern Moorlands of Yorkshire.

Permission to excavate was kindly granted by the landowners, Milburn Estates Ltd., Newcastle-on-Tyne, with the proviso that we began after the close of the grouse-shooting season. We were therefore obliged to carry out the work in October and November, and then only at week-ends when our helpers were free. The weather was often bad, and this considerably increased the difficulties of what proved to be an arduous excavation.

The Howe is situated in Lat. 54° 23′ 53″ N. and Long. 0° 55′ 04″ w. where Danby High Moor to the north adjoins Glaisdale Moor to the east on the central watershed of the Eastern Moorlands. It stands on rising ground a few yards north of the road from Ralph Cross to Rosedale Abbey and is a conspicuous landmark for miles around. Its elevation, 1400 feet, makes it one of the highest in the whole of Eastern Yorkshire. In this respect it is only exceeded by Drake Howe (1427 feet) on the Cleveland hill, Cranimoor, and by four small barrows at 1480 feet on Urra Moor where, above Ingleby Greenhow, the moorlands reach their greatest elevation of 1489 feet.

Type
Research Article
Information
Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society , Volume 15 , 1949 , pp. 87 - 106
Copyright
Copyright © The Prehistoric Society 1949

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References

page 87 note * We are particularly grateful to Dr B. W. Bradford for preparing the plan and section of the howe; to Dr T. D. Kendrick, Keeper of the Department of British and Medieval Antiquities, British Museum for the plan and elevation of the coffin, and Mr C. W. Starnes for the other plans, elevations and cross sections; to the Trustees of the British Museum, Messrs T. Brigham, G. O. Fox, and Dr R. Quarrenden for the use of photographs; and to Dr T. D. Kendrick and Prof. C. F. C. Hawkes for help and information. We feel we cannot omit the thanks of all to Mr and Mrs P. Wood of Billingham, who served us with a never-failing supply of hot drinks.

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page 97 note 1 Atkinson, op. cit. The objects are in the British Museum.

page 97 note 2 Atkinson Collection, British Museum.

page 98 note 1 Bateman Collection, Sheffield Museum.

page 98 note 2 Kendall Collection, Yorkshire Museum, York.

page 98 note 3 Bateman Collection, Sheffield Museum.

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(b) Disc from barrow on same moor.

(c) British Barrows, no. CLVII. Awl fragments in an Urn Barrow on Wykeham Low Moor.

(d) Bronze fragments in an urn on Kilburn Moor. We saw these in a private collection at Thirsk some years ago.

page 98 note 8 Elgee, op. cit., p. 97.

page 99 note 1 British Barrows, no. CLII, pp. 357–61.

page 99 note 2 Mortimer, J. R., Forty Years' Researches, p. 7Google Scholar, Fig. 12. Another somewhat different dagger also from Towthorpe and with a skeleton, op. cit., Plate 1, Fig. 6.

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page 102 note 9 See footnote 12, p. 101.

page 103 note 1 Piggott, , Proc. Prehist. Soc., 1938, p. 60Google Scholar.

page 103 note 2 See footnote 2, p. 101.

page 103 note 3 Elgee, , Early Man, p. 82Google Scholar.

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page 104 note 1 Danmarks Oldtid II, p. 30Google Scholar.

page 104 note 2 Zur Alteren Nordischen Bronzezeit passim, and additional information from Dr Kersten in litt., 1946.

page 104 note 3 In litt., 5 November, 1946.

page 104 note 4 Dr Grahame Clark discussed this aspect of dug-out canoes in his Munro Lectures delivered in the University of Edinburgh in March, 1949.

page 104 note 5 Cf. Arch. Journ. XCVI (1939), 212Google Scholar.

page 104 note 6 Grinsell, L. V. in Antiquity 1941, 367Google Scholar; 1942, 160–74.

page 104 note 7 In litt., 20 July, 1946.