Ancient settlement found

Date: 2003-12-30, Publication: The Journal

Work on Newcastles newest neighbourhood has uncovered evidence of settlers who staked a claim to the site about 2,500 years ago.

The Iron Age settlement has been discovered at Newcastle Great Park, where 2,500 homes will be built over the next 10 to 15 years.

And because the ancient site has not been damaged by medieval ploughing, it is set to reveal dramatic details of the lives of some of the first farmers to settle in the lower Tyne Valley.

A full-scale dig is due to take place early next year. "It is an astounding site and a very exciting project," said Tyne Wear Museums senior keeper of field archaeology Steve Speak.

The site, south of the Sage office complex, is the second Iron Age homestead to be discovered at the Great Park, north of Gosforth.

Last year, a settlement of timber huts which would have housed about 40 people and dating from about 500BC was found, suggesting that the area was a popular place to live.

Archaeologists already know of two other Iron Age settlements at nearby Hazlerigg, making a total of four sites within a half-mile radius.

The latest find has revealed a series of 12-metre-diameter huts in an open settlement, which was replaced by a double-ditch enclosed settlement with one large roundhouse 20 metres across.

"Because it has not been cut by ploughing, we should get quite a lot of preserved material and should be able to determine details such as what people ate," said Mr Speak.

Initial finds of native pottery have been dated at between 700BC and 100BC.

Research on last year's site has indicated that the timber and wattle-walled huts had a lifespan of about 25 years and were rebuilt on two or three occasions.

Mr Speak said the four sites could mean an extended family clan group rebuilding in a new spot, or four separate neighbouring communities.

Why the smaller, unenclosed huts of the early phase of the new site were replaced with an enclosed system with one big building is a mystery. Tyne Wear Museums senior curator Paul Bidwell said: " It is a fascinating and important site. This latest discovery suggests that this lower part of the Tyne Valley was a very popular place to be before the Romans arrived."

This is backed up by the fact that excavations of the line of Hadrian's Wall on Tyneside have revealed evidence of Iron Age cultivation.

* Archaeologists have uncovered more details of the commanders house at Arbeia Roman fort in South Shields, part of which has now been reconstructed.

A dig has revealed a collapsed section of wall which shows the house had a striped exterior, with bands of stone laid in alternating colours.

The foundations of a vestibule have been unearthed, which means that when the commander and his wife stepped from their carriage in the street they were protected from the weather as they entered the house.

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