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Professor Tom Moore
Head of the Department of Archaeology
Who made the discovery?
The Melsonby Hoard was initially discovered by Peter Heads who is a metal detectorist who was scanning a field in Melsonby, North Yorkshire, northern England, with the landowners’ permission. He contacted me as I was working in the region nearby. It was potentially a treasure case, so it was reported to the Portable Antiquities Scheme and British Museum, and we agreed to go back and do a careful archaeological excavation. My initial reaction was that this was an interesting discovery, but it was only when we went back to excavate the hoard that we realised we were onto something really exciting. A hoard of this kind of scale and size is exceptional for Britain and probably even Europe.
How was the site excavated?
The Melsonby excavation was led by the Department of Archaeology at Durham University with support from our professional Archaeological Services team and advice from the British Museum. We also had students who were on their placement with our professional team, so they had a unique opportunity to work on a find of a lifetime. Each object was carefully excavated, recorded and photographed, including using the latest 3D digital technology to record it so we could reconstruct exactly how the deposits of material were excavated and how it had been deposited in the past.
What did you find?
The Melsonby hoard includes over 800 items, of which the majority were horse harnesses including bridle bits for horses or ponies and 28 iron tyres from vehicles which appear, unusually, to have been from four wheeled wagons, not two wheeled chariots. It also included two impressive vessels, a cauldron and a wine mixing bowl and some other objects, such as iron spearheads. The material probably dates from the early to mid-first century AD.
The find consisted of two deposits, a larger one which was excavated on site and a smaller one of entangled objects which we were able to lift as a block. The block was removed from the site and excavated in our conservation laboratory to reveal the objects within it. We worked very closely with a team from the University of Southampton who undertook a CT scan of the block which revealed incredible detail of its contents before we started to excavate it.
What have you learnt?
This is likely to be one of the largest hoards of Iron Age material that we’ve ever encountered, not just in Britain but perhaps in Europe. One of the key findings was that a lot of the material within the hoard was either burnt or broken which may be some sort of symbolic process where people were deliberately showing how wealthy and powerful they were by being able to destroy these things. That might have taken place as part of large ceremonial event, one which involved feasting, suggested by the cauldron and wine mixing bowl. The fact that much of the material is burnt may mean it was on a funerary pyre before it was deposited. In the Iron Age, this kind of material was extremely valuable which indicates people in northern Britain were as wealthy, powerful and connected as those in southern Britain.
