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Archaeological Research Services Ltd (ARS Ltd) has been nominated for the Current Archaeology Awards 2024 in the ‘Rescue Project of the Year’ category for ‘Ponteland’s prehistoric past: tracing life and death on the edge of the Northumberland Coastal Plain’.

The company carried out the excavations a few years ago ahead of the new buildings being constructed at the Ponteland site on behalf of Kier Group plc, one of the organisations that worked with Northumberland County Council on the multi-million-pound learning and leisure initiative.

Detailed studies of the findings were then carried out. These included two individuals from thousands of years ago, both females, appearing to have been killed by blows to the head.

Ponteland ring ditch and Neolithic structure with archaeologists.

These rare examples of interpersonal violence taking place at this time suggest that neighbourly disputes and tensions may have been more common than currently thought.

Clive Waddington, ARS Ltd managing director, said: “It’s amazing to be shortlisted for the Current Archaeology Rescue Project of the Year for the fascinating discoveries we made in advance of the new schools and leisure facilities in Ponteland.

“It was great to find evidence of the earliest farming in the region nearly 6,000 years ago through to the remains of people of eastern European ancestry who brought metal working and new cult activities to Britain around 2,400 BC.

“Even for archaeologists, finding human burials – including one with a bronze dagger at his waist – of our early ancestors is rare and informative.

Human burials and some items from thousands of years ago were found during the excavations.

And to top it off with Iron Age and Romano-British farming activity, this excavation unearthed thousands of years of unrecorded history in the area.”

The excavations revealed a small rectangular post-built structure dating to more than 5,000 years ago. This was partly overlain by a ‘ring-ditch’ funerary monument dating to 4,000 years ago.

The monument was associated with the successive burial of four inhumations over a 300-year period.

Activity in the late prehistoric period included a rectilinear enclosure constructed around the earlier monument which was reconfigured, possibly for livestock management or as a ceremonial space.

Current Archaeology is the world’s biggest magazine dedicated solely to British archaeology. People can vote for the Ponteland project online at https://archaeology.co.uk/vote

Ponteland project nominated for the Current Archaeology Awards 2024