Ballalough & Dallar Lough (Old Map: now vanished)

TWO LOST LAKES. Durham's 1595 map shows both Ballalough and Dallar Lough in the northern plain. Both have 'disappeared since Durham's time' — drained for agriculture. Former lake edges and shores are archaeological goldmines. WHY: (1) Every settlement in history clustered around fresh water, (2) Lake shores concentrate human activity — washing, watering animals, fishing, ritual deposition (throwing valuable items into water was common from Bronze Age through medieval), (3) Drained lake beds preserve organic material that would rot in normal soil — leather, wood, bone, (4) The northern plain already has Viking hoards — these lakes would have been focal points for Norse settlement.