PREHISTORIC VILLAGE

Grey River Argus, 21 June 1927, Page 3

PREHISTORIC VILLAGE

JEWELS AND BEER JARS. The excavations on the Castle Hill at Scarborough have revealed in the space of half an acre a storehouse of history that is one of the richest antiquarian finds of recent years. The foundations have been bared and exposed of a— Mediaeval church Norman church Saxon chapel • Roman signal station, and Prehistoric village and careful sifting of the spot has yielded Roman pottery that is among the rarest ever discovered, skeletons, jewels, and other evidences of 2509 i years of history. The five years’ task has been under the supervision of Mr F. G. Simpson, Director of Archaeology at Durham University, and the corporation financed the operations. The lowest strata showed relics of a prehistoric village, with more than 30 pits filled with broken pottery, bones of deer and boar, and domestic utensils. This village is believed to be one of the Halstadt period, and if this is so it will be the first village of this period to be unearthed in the North of England. THE DISCOVERIES. Some of the most interesting dis* coveries are:— Jet bangles, probably from Whitby, and lunar Druidical ornaments in jet. Skeletons, now in the possession of Sir Arthur Keith, of the Royal College of Surgeons, that may possibly go back to 1200 B.C. Wattle and daub, that might be part of the Saxon homesteads. 200 coins, Saxon, Roman, and medieval. 16th century bronze cauldron, Which might have been the priest’s cooking utensil. Relics of 16th century Gale brewing jars tell how Yorkshiremen used to brew their beer out of gale, a ms which grew on the moors of East Hiding. Evon the bung-holes of the jars are intact. _____