Iron Age archaeological find: British 'bling' from 2,000 years ago included horse harnesses

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Ancient England had more "bling" than historians have given it credit for.

That's the conclusion archaeologists drew from a cache of more than 800 Iron Age artifacts from northeast England dating back about 2,000 years. Found in a field near Melsonby, North Yorkshire, in December 2021, the Melsonby Hoard consists of metal artifacts, including horse harnesses, chariots, tires, ceremonial spears and a pair of cauldrons.

“The Melsonby Hoard is of a scale and size that is exceptional for Britain and probably even Europe," said Tom Moore, a professor and head of the Department of Archaeology at Durham University in the U.K., just north of Melsonby.

“Unusually it includes lots of pieces of vehicles and items such as the wine mixing bowl which is decorated in both Mediterranean and Iron Age styles," Moore said in a description of the collection on the Yorkshire Museum website. "Whoever originally owned the material in this hoard was probably a part of a network of elites across Britain, into Europe and even the Roman world."

Archaeological find suggests Iron Age Britons had connections in Europe

Metal detectorist Peter Heads discovered the artifacts while exploring a field with the landowner’s permission. Durham University's archaeologists excavated the site in 2022. Some of the artifacts are on display at the Yorkshire Museum amid a fundraising campaign to acquire the collection and prevent it from going to private sale.

"By acquiring the hoard we will be able to make it accessible to everyone and, working in partnership with others, we can learn more about this fascinating period, why the hoard was buried, how the objects may have been used and to cast light on to whom it may have belonged," Andrew Woods, head of collections and research at the Yorkshire Museum, said in a statement.

The museum hopes to raise enough money to keep the collection, valued at about $327,000.

The items date from the first century B.C., about the time of the Roman conquest under Emperor Claudius, Duncan Garrow, professor of archaeology at the University of Reading, said in a description of the find on the Durham University website. At the time, that area was dominated by the Brigantes, a tribe whose name means "hill people."

"The presence of materials imported from the Mediterranean, and a type of continental European wagon new to Britain, challenges the idea that Iron Age Britons were isolated," Garrow said. "Instead, it tells us that 'wealthy' Iron Age people in northern England had contacts extending out across Europe."

What do the artifacts' condition symbolize?

Many of the found artifacts were burnt or broken, which suggests "a symbolic process of people showing how wealthy and powerful they were by being able to destroy the objects," according to the Yorkshire Museum. "They might have been burnt on a funerary pyre before being buried, but no human remains were found."

Some objects resemble others found in Britain, while some match artifacts found in Europe, which suggests "long distance connections and shared technology at the time," the museum says.

The horse harnesses, part of the collection, had bits of embedded Mediterranean coral and would have been "really bright and brassy with blue glass beads and coral," Adam Parker, curator of archaeology at the Yorkshire Museum, told the BBC.

"It just bumps up the power and prestige of these tribal groups in North Yorkshire and it makes them even more glamorous," Parker said. "These are really fancy Iron Age chariots. These are absolute bling – they are garish" and would have served as "a show and display of wealth."

Mike Snider is a reporter on Paste BN’s Trending team. You can follow him on Threads, Bluesky, X and email him at mikegsnider  &  @mikegsnider.bsky.social  &  @mikesnider & msnider@usatoday.com

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