'High status' Bronze Age remains found in quarry

Cremated human remains were found in a Bronze Age pottery vessel

A team of archaeologists have discovered a "high status" Bronze Age burial site in a quarry in the Yorkshire Dales.

During investigations ahead of an expansion of Breedon's Leyburn Quarry, researchers from Archaeological Research Services found cremated human remains, a burial urn and an axe hammer.

Archaeologist Clive Waddington said the finds suggested the grave of an individual who may have been connected to Bronze Age sites throughout Europe.

He said: "The hammer implies someone of quite high standing - probably some sort of local gentry or possibly even a local chieftain."

The gender of the person interred has not been conclusively established.

He added: "Those kind of objects, which have been carefully made from exotic rocks to the area have been carefully smoothed down and made symmetrical. A lot of time and effort has gone into making that.

"Those kind of objects could have functioned as almost like a ceremonial sort of mace."

The axe head was made from volcanic rock, suggesting the buried individual had connections beyond Wensleydale

According to Archaeological Research Services, there is extensive evidence for Bronze Age activity around Leyburn, including field systems, settlements, burial sites and metal hoards.

The five-week excavation showed 27 archaeological features clustered around two pits and two ditches.

Archaeologists found cremated human bone, a large pottery vessel and a symmetrical stone axe hammer.

The hammer – which was 10cm in length and made from volcanic rock - was found within the urn of human remains, suggesting it belonged to the deceased person.

"The burial 100% is early Bronze Age so that will date to somewhere between about 2000 and probably 1700 BC," said Mr Waddington.

The volcanic rock of the hammer suggests it was made outside Yorkshire, he added.

"I suspect the rock has come from quite far afield, possibly Scotland. But we're getting that examined at the moment.

"Whoever was living in Wensleydale had access to these exchange networks that extended all across the British islands and potentially beyond," he said.

The five-week dig concentrated on two pits and two ditches

The finds will now be radiocarbon dated and the bones will be analysed.

This will give researchers an insight in where the cremated person grew up and their sex.

"We should be able to expand this story out and relate it to the wider area, because the bigger backdrop to this at the time is that Britain is very much the cradle of the European Bronze Age," said Mr Waddington.

"Britain becomes very wealthy and it's not just confined to the south west where the tin is. Britain's got huge mineral reserves of all kinds, and particularly metals.

"The Yorkshire Dales is very lead-rich. And so another source of wealth for these people may have been coming through the lead exploitation and that's allowing them to become part of this huge trade in early metallurgy, which is not just a British trade, it's extending all the way across Europe, all the way to the Middle East."

More excavation will be undertaken at the site next year, added Mr Waddington.

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