Â鶹Éç

These Bronze Age food vessels were found during an excavation of two early Bronze Age burial cairns at Turf Knowe in the Breamish Valley of Northumberland National Park (copies shown). One of them contained the cremated remains of an infant who apparently died from meningitis four thousand years ago. The Cheviot Hills abound with burial cairns from this era and hillforts from the Iron Age; illustrating a long-held need for a community to mark its territory in places which were safe from winter floods and able to be seen. The early burial cairns may have been a way of establishing the ancestral rights to surrounding land. The burial of cremated remains suggests a ritual process, while the reverent laying to rest of a tiny child that died in tragic circumstances forges strong emotional links with our own time. The pots can be seen in an exhibition at the National Park Visitor Centre, Ingram.