South Shields Roman Fort, prehistoric site

Excavations at Arbeia Roman Fort in 1992-4 and 1999 revealed a multi-period prehistoric site preserved beneath the Roman fort. Flints attested mesolithic activity. In the early Neolithic a segmented ditch may represent part of a causewayed enclosure. By circa 3000 BC this had been superseded by pits and shelters associated with flint knapping. Finds also suggest a Bronze Age presence. The Iron Age was represented by a roundhouse (see HER 4357). Prehistoric artefacts have been recovered from the fort on previous occasions, including mesolithic and neolithic flints, a polished stone axe, a BA shale button and jet bead and a piece of Neolithic or Bronze Age rock art decorated with cups. During this excavation, 327 pieces of struck stone were recovered, mostly flint, but a few examples of chert and quartz. The tools included bashed lumps, cores, flakes, blades, scrapers, microliths, a burin and leaf-shaped arrowhead.