Northumberland Rock Art

A long time ago, before the Internet, Neolithic and Early Bronze Age people hung out in Northumberland and carved on rocks. And since we have the Internet now, everyone everywhere can see the carved rock panels thanks to the Northumberland Rock Art archive, available at http://rockart.ncl.ac.uk/ . This site contains over 1000 examples of carvings.

There are several ways to view the carvings: you can search the site (by panel name, type, image type, etc.) You can also browse the site. You can browse everything but since that's over 1000 panels I don't recommend that. I recommend instead browsing by location. A parish list shows available locations and how many items are in each location.

I looked at Bewick CP, Berwick-upon-Tweed. The page's print, very teeny in Firefox (holy cow) listed locations and motifs with links to detailed information. I went to Old Bewick 1a, which looked like it had a lot going on. Did you know that Old Bewick means bee farm? Now you do. Information is presented in a page with a series of tabs.

The first tab provides general information about the location, panel types, and a description of the site and what's available. The second tab provides information on exact location, access (including wheelchair access), altitude, and topography. The third tab discusses the archaeology of the site. The fourth tab provides information on the environment; panel dimensions, inclination details, rock types, etc. The fifth tab, management, provides information on the status of the location, details of the visit, and the current land use.

The last tab has the images of the panels. Sometimes there's only one image and sometimes there are many. Thumbnails has a brief description from the item, along with the date and source (slide, digital photograph, etc.) Click on the thumbnail and you'll get a larger image along with an extensive art description. Click on the image again to get a still larger image (great for viewing the carving details.)

The site also has a FAQ, a link list for issues relating to the site (rock art, Northumberland, etc.) and a pretty cool "interactive zone."

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