Didn’t make it to the cist itself, but I did visit the slab in its new home at the museum. IronMan’s photo really captures the lighting where it’s displayed, which highlights the surface texture of the slab and its carvings rather well. I couldn’t help surreptitiously dabbing at the stone with my hand (I felt quite guilty but if it was in a field rather than a museum you’d feel quite differently – must be years of museums instilling Do Not Touch).
The accompanying label states that the slab formed the south side of the cist, and that the cremated bones of an adult and a child were found by the large and small foot carvings near its base. There is something quite affecting about the strange long-toed/fingered carvings.
It also mentioned that parallels are known mainly from Scandinavia, although The Calderstones and a roundbarrow near Alwinton in Northumberland apparently have similar carvings.
The stone from Northumberland is probably the one from Harbottle Peels, which Canon Greenwell dug up and sent to the British Museum:
rockart.ncl.ac.uk/panel_detail.asp?pi=653
Photos can be seen on Mijnheer Brouwer's 'British Rock Art Collection':-
rockartuk.fotopic.net/c1569204.html