Great Tosson : Bronze Age (c. 2000 BC – 700 BC)
A Bronze hoard comprising two leaf-shaped swords and three rings was discovered beneath a flat rock in the Simonside hills in 1868 (NZ 025985), and a flanged bronze axe was found by workmen in the Long Planting, close to Tosson Burgh hillfort, in 1890 (NU 023003). Bronze weapons such as this are extremely rare, and are likely to have been very valuable, perhaps the exclusive preserve of an elite social class. It is unlikely that bronze axes would ever have been suitable for everyday activities such as tree-felling, though bronze swords may have been suitable for combat between individuals (Higham 1986, 104).
Finds such as these often occur in association with water, such as rivers, bogs, and lakes, or on the summit of high hills, and may have been deposited deliberately, perhaps as offerings to deities. Though the precise context of either of these finds is unknown, they are more likely to have been deposited as part of a ritual than lost accidentally.
As in the preceding Neolithic, religion and ritual was extremely important in Bronze Age society, and this is reflected in the complex burial traditions of the period. Cairns, such as that opened at Spital Hill in 1889 NZ 025998), are usually attributed to the Bronze Age, though many are not precisely dated and examples are known from the Neolithic period. Excavations revealed two burial cists, containing cremated bone and ash, Bronze Age pottery, and a flint tool. Many other cairns are known from Spital Hill (e.g. NU 027001, NU 025997), though most were excavated without adequate record in the 19th century.
Though this area is now afforested, many of these cairns are situated on north facing slopes and would originally have had commanded extensive views of the Coquet valley, reflecting the continuing importance of visibility to Bronze Age societies. Bronze Age burials are, however, also known in lower-lying situations, and the cist cemetery found on the south bank of the Coquet near Great Tosson in 1858 is an important example (NU 023005), though at least some of the burials may be of Anglian date.
Though Bronze Age burial cairns are abundant in this locality, field clearance cairns, often found in association with early agricultural remains, are so far unknown. Unenclosed round house settlements, relatively common in parts of the Cheviots, as in the Ingram area, for example, are likewise unknown.
It may be that the Fell Sandstone landscape around Great Tosson may have been important for ritual and mortuary purposes to Late Neolithic and Bronze Age peoples whose dwelling places were elsewhere (cf. Hedley & Quartermaine 2004, 340-3, 347-8), though the evidence, as always, is incomplete, and there may have been local settlements which have not survived to the present day.