Finding a Dim Far-Away Past: Nineteenth Century Archaeological Endeavour in Cleveland

Abstract

This paper reviews the evidence for archaeological activity in north-east Yorkshire and Cleveland during the nineteenth century. Three groups of participants are identified — churchmen, the self-styled ‘Cleveland Bards’, and representatives of the new industrial town of Middlesbrough — although none is likely to have called himself an archaeologist. Their interests found particular focus in the excavation of Bronze Age burial mounds and were for the most part focused on the identification of a pagan, barbaric and uncivilised past which could be contrasted with a civilized present. The particular interest in the archaeological monuments may have been a reflection of the tensions caused by the rapid development of the new iron and steel industry along the lower Tees, formerly the scene of rural agriculture.