Description: Excavation possibly by J P Heathcote.
The urn is described as having been excavated from Barrow T3 on Stanton Moor. However, if you compare it with the urns from cairn T3 illustrated in the Derbyshire Archaeological Journal for 1930 (vol. L1, new series vol.4, page 29) it doesn't match. It could be one of the urns unearthed by quarrymen in New Park Quarry, Stanton Moor in 1925: see description of Stanton Moor urns in P.M. Vine, The Neolithic and Bronze Age Cultures of the Midde and Upper Trent Basin, British Archaeological Reports, British Series 105, 1982, pg. 225 (Stanton Moor, Barrow 1, New Park Quarry). There is a good modern picture of this on Sheffield Museum's 'I Dig Sheffield' website, and it is also illustrated (Figure 2) in an article by Storrs Fox in the DAJ for 1927, vol. XLIX, p.199. Stanton Moor was the focus for an active prehistoric community covering many years from the Neolithic, through the Bronze age to the Iron age, and is still widely visited today by followers of archaic rituals and mysteries. The stone circles on the moor are referred to in texts as Stanton Moor I, II (Nine Ladies), III and IV Stanton Moor is typical of moorland with its wide expanse of heather, with a sandy soil overlying Millstone Grit. There are light silver birch woods surrounding the North-western edge of the moor. There has been talk from the local authorities of clearing the woods entirely, on the basis that there were no trees when the circle was originally built. This is probable as the upper part of the moor was probably cleared for agriculture by the bronze age people who built the circles, but others feel that the wood has naturally re-asserted itself and should be left. In addition to four stone circles, the moor is scattered with a ancient burial mounds of a range of shapes and ages.