Prehistoric sacraficial site at Stainsby beck Cleveland North East England

This basic record represents over 10 years of excavation and study carried out by myself at a location in Cleveland North East England.

I believe the area to be a prehistoric sacrificial site, that has close connections with the outcrop of the Cleveland Basaltic Andesite Dyke it surrounds.

I have excavated and discovered many well preserved mammal bones including Human in a very small area, situated around an outcrop of the dyke. None of the pieces show signs of butchery or disease.  I have also excavated pottery pieces some with food remains still attached. Many of the skulls I have found have what look to be cavities and breaks caused by pieces of the basalt found close by.

In ten years of excavating these deposits I have never discovered any iron or alloy or traces of it.

 I have also discovered a shoe after a partial collapse of one of my digs, that could well be part of the same deposits, all of the items listed below have been reported to Tees Archaeology and The Dorman Museum Middlesbrough without response. The Human bone has been examined and removed from my possession via Cleveland Police to Teesside University.  

I now believe the site could have been used for thousands of years, all relating to its proximity to the outcrop of the Cleveland Dyke and it meeting with the water. 

 Below just some of the pieces excavated at the site, although I can not be certain the shoe sole came from the deposits, more information regarding the shoe sole find can be seen below.

Below Human Cranium - parietal piece.

                                Below Huge Cervus Elephus Antler and skull section excavated. 

Below the antler excavation.

Below the top shaft of the Antler can be seen before excavation, poor images due to problems with my camera at the time.

Below dyke stone found immediately above animal bones.

Below pottery pieces excavated some with food remains, and a rim.

The pot appears to have a high quartz content.

Below human and animal bone found in the beck and excavated, the first image shows 2 Deer mandibles and a Human Tibia shaft half excavated outlined in yellow to the left.

Above a Human Tibia shaft outlined in red with a deer mandible is outlined in yellow to the right.

Above and below two Human Femurs found in the same area in the beck, almost certainly from the same deposits ive been excavating, the Femur above was said to be unusually long and robust in a report by Durham University.

The Human Femur above was said to be unusually long and robust in a report by Durham University. 

Above the Human Tibia shaft to the left of the Mandibles more bone was excavated including, Bos - Dog or Wolf - Goat - Horse 

One Excavation into the beck bank.

Part of the shoe sole found after a collapse of one excavation it was covered in the same clay, and could be from the deposits excavated although I can not be sure. 

Above Shoe sole.

Below the heel area of the shoe sole.

 Below assemblage from one excavation including cervical vertebrae, Deer mandible - Sus leg bone. 

Below Goat cranium excavation 

Below Goat Mandibles - jaw almost excavated with a large piece of Basaltic Andesite to the bottom right, I found it common to find large pieces like this close to many bone finds.

Below the full assemblage of Goat bone excavated.

Below Bos radius

Below the assemblage from one excavation.

Below full image of the shoe sole found after a collapse of one excavation, as stated the shoe sole was covered in the same deposits as bone excavated, but I can not be certain it came from the same deposits.

Below Cervus mandible and partial maxilla.  

Below Unknown Horn core and cranium piece

Below the Human Tibia shaft cleaned and dried.

Below Cervus Mandible and partial Maxilla show earlier, And the Human Tibia shaft.

Below Human Tibia shaft before being fully excavated.

Below the area of the excavation.

Below the Human Tibia and Deer mandible.

Below preserved snails from the deposits.

Below preserved wood - nut shells - stalks - bark.

Below preserved Seeds from the deposits

Below what I am informed are preserved frog bones.

Below assemblage from another excavation including Horse coffin bone Bos metatarsal Atlas vertebrae probably horse, Horse cranium, and Bos horn core cranium piece. 

Below Cervus Metatarsal 

                                                                           

Below another excavation.

Assemblage including Horse metatarsal - Bos tibia - Goat mandibles - Horn core - Ribs - Vertebrae  

Below this image shows another partially excavated bone and a clam shell, I have found many of these in the deposits.

 Below a very large Bos scapular, I believe this scapular belonged to an Auroch, as prehistoric domesticated breeds probably never reached this size.

Below partial horse mandible.

Below two of three separate horse mandibles excavated along side a huge red deer antler and other bones in a 4 meter square area, as with all examples found and excavated there was no signs of Butchery. 

Below an assemblage shown before being cleaned.

Below the assemblage after cleaning.

Below Wild boar skull.

Below another assemblage including Bos skull - Large Deer mandibles - Maxilla - Large Dog or Wolf mandible.

Below Large dog or wolf mandible, and unusual teeth possibly deer.

Cervus Mandible 

Below unfused and dislocated leg bone.

Below Horse skull - goat or sheep mandibles - small horn core

Below another excavation

Below the assemblage including Scapula leg bones Vertebrae - Rib - Pelvis section.

Below another Horse mandible

Below as mentioned earlier this is the third Mandible found along side a huge red deer antler, along with other bone in less than a 4 square metre excavated area. 

Below Horse scapular 

Below Horse incisors' 

Below more partially excavated bone.

Below dog Skull

 

This is the fully excavated Cervus Elephus Antler, ive not traced a larger piece in Britain or Europe. 

Mesolithic worked bone

One of my first finds from the Stainton gravel beds, this piece has been looked at by many experts but we still have no firm answers.

https://historyofabeck.blogspot.com/2012/10/the-stainton-gravel-beds.htmlStainton Gravel Beds

Prehistoric Horse Pelvis from the Stainsby sacraficial deposits.

This Horse Pelvis is completely intact.

No Human or Animal attention to be seen. 

Again as with all from these deposits, they are not kills or waste from Human activity. 

Clevelands Prehistoric forest uncovered on the coast of Redcar .

A piece of Dogger land was recently uncovered by rough sea's amazingly well preserved prehistoric forest stumps and more where discovered .

Prehistoric stone fishing sinker .

I excavated this piece from the Stainton gravel beds 2 years ago , ime now sure it was used as a fishing sinker , and ime also sure like many other worked stones I've discovered it is made from a flint not from this area , confirming my theory of an ice dam release causing major flooding that killed both Humans and animals not long after recolonization after the last major cold period .  Making the piece 12 to 17000 ybp in age .

 The deliberate wearing on each side  of the flint speaks for its self .

 Ive found and excavated many fishing related pieces from the Stainton gravel beds reinforcing my theory of a gradual re population of this area before a huge ice dam release from the mouth of the esk valley . 

Prehistoric Engineering

I found this a few weeks ago in the beck almost certainly from the Stainton gravel beds , I believe it could be a man made counter balance or anchor I found the piece in the beck so am almost sure it is related to the Stainton gravel beds dating between 12 - 17 tybp

 The gap is almost identical all the way around , the centre is circular and I believe the piece was used to whined a twine of some sort . 

 The rock also appears to have been shaped for some reason . This piece again ime sure is from the Stainton gravel beds dating 12 - 17000 ybp .

The two pieces below were found at an earlier date in the same stretch of water and appear to be made of the same sandstone .

 

Clevelands Prehistoric pot pieces evcavated at Stainsby

These pot pieces were excavated from what I strongly believe to be a prehistoric sacrificial site in south west Cleveland in the north east of England.

All of these pieces were found close to many preserved unbutchered bones, including Human all in approximately a 15 x 5 metre area very close to an outcrop of the Cleveland Dyke . The same type of  Rock used at Stonehenge .

                  The two pieces above still appear to have burned food remains on the surface

Tees Archaeology the the right way to find and record stuff .

I have recently been involved in quite a few arguments with so called professional's regarding the rights and wrongs of searching for and recording Archaeological finds . I have been informed via what looks like paste and copy professionals that ime doing it all wrong. I was informed today by the author of another local blog again via post and copy, that I know nothing regarding the area I have worked for the past 30 years, apparently because I have recorded it incorrectly and will not conform to paper reports I have already proved wrong.

I work in deep beck valleys so have to work fast often with out the chance to record finds in the slow often useless manor so called professionals say it should be done , because if I did most finds would be lost forever .        

CLEVELAND OHIO'S LINKS TO ANCIENT CLEVELAND

 I have recently stumbled across a not so obvious link between Ancient Cleveland  in the North East of England and Cleveland Ohio in the United States. The two modern areas share many similarities including a history of heavy industry, steel works, chemicals, and mining, hard people living in a hard place and being proud of it, but I've discovered the relationship goes much deeper.  

                                                                     

The image above shows the industry in Ancient Cleveland north east England, the image below shows the industry in Cleveland Ohio around the same period in history.

The image above features the Tees Newport bridge in British Cleveland, the image below shows the High Level bridge in Cleveland, Ohio.

General Moses Cleveland pictured above, a descendent of  the Viking Thorkic, who was the father of Robert of Cleveland born in what is now a suburb of Middlesbrough, Ormesby Ancient Cleveland.

Whilst researching I found that Cleveland Ohio was founded and named by General Moses Cleveland. Research into his ancestry first took me through three generations of American born ancestors, and then to Ipswich on the South East coast of England. Further research eventually lead back to Ancient Cleveland, and a Viking named Thorkic, farther of Robert of Cleveland, who was born in the Viking settlement of Ormesby, which is now the name of a suburb of Middlesbrough in the Viking named area Cleveland.

The image above shows a statue less than a mile away from the probable birth place of Robert son of Thorkic, the ancestors of General Moses Cleveland the man who gave Cleveland Ohio its name.
So there is no doubt that the ancient area of Cleveland in North east England gave its name to Cleveland Ohio via General Moses Cleveland .   

   

AND A PRESIDENT WHO WAS RELATED 

President Grover's  ancestors also emigrated from ancient Cleveland in 1635 and were related to General Moses Cleveland .