The Crawley Edge Cairns are a series of forty-two
Bronze Age
The Bronze Age () was a historical period characterised principally by the use of bronze tools and the development of complex urban societies, as well as the adoption of writing in some areas. The Bronze Age is the middle principal period of ...
round barrow
A round barrow is a type of tumulus and is one of the most common types of archaeological monuments. Although concentrated in Europe, they are found in many parts of the world, probably because of their simple construction and universal purpose. ...
s,
cairn
A cairn is a human-made pile (or stack) of stones raised for a purpose, usually as a marker or as a burial mound. The word ''cairn'' comes from the (plural ).
Cairns have been and are used for a broad variety of purposes. In prehistory, t ...
s and
clearance cairn
A clearance cairn is an irregular and unstructured collection of fieldstones which have been removed from arable land or pasture to allow for more effective agriculture and collected into a usually low mound or cairn. Commonly of Bronze Age origin ...
s located in a field in
Crawleyside, near
Stanhope, County Durham
Stanhope is a market town and civil parish in the County Durham district, in the ceremonial county of Durham, England. It lies on the River Wear between Eastgate and Frosterley, in the north-east of Weardale. The main A689 road over the ...
, England.
The Cairnfield
The cairnfield site lies on a gentle south-facing slope of a hill-spur in
Weardale
Weardale is a dale, or valley, on the east side of the Pennines in County Durham, England. Large parts of Weardale fall within the North Pennines Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB) – the second-largest AONB in England and Wales. The u ...
and remains in open moorland.
Two of the cairns were excavated in 1977 and surveys undertaken in 1984 and 1991.
The inclusion of
clearance cairn
A clearance cairn is an irregular and unstructured collection of fieldstones which have been removed from arable land or pasture to allow for more effective agriculture and collected into a usually low mound or cairn. Commonly of Bronze Age origin ...
s at the site is usually taken as an indication of clearance in advance of arable farming, but the Crawley Edge field unusually includes a
barrow cremation mound among the cairns.
See also
*
History of County Durham
The history of County Durham.
Roman and pre-Roman
Remains of Prehistoric Durham include a number of Neolithic earthworks.
The Crawley Edge Cairns and Heathery Burn Cave are Bronze Age sites. Maiden Castle, Durham is an Iron Age site.
Brigantia ...
*
Bronze Age Britain
Bronze Age Britain is an era of British history that spanned from until . Lasting for approximately 1,700 years, it was preceded by the era of Neolithic Britain and was in turn followed by the period of Iron Age Britain. Being categorised as t ...
*
Heathery Burn Cave
References
External links
Young, R. 1984. PhD Thesis – ''Aspects of the Prehistoric Archaeology of the Wear Valley, County Durham''
{{DEFAULTSORT:Crawley Edge Cairns
Bronze Age sites in County Durham
Stanhope, County Durham
Barrows in England
Cairns (stone mounds)