Melsonby Hoard - hundreds of iron age horse harness iems found in Yorkshire

[Janet]

A hoard of over 800 iron age items, including two cauldrons or vessels, horse harness, bits, ceremonial spears and 28 iron tyres, buried about 2000 yers ago, has ben found in North Yorkshire. They think the items were burned in funeral pyre, and then buried. It provides the earliest evidence of 4 wheeled wagons in Britain.

In addition to the iron objects, there are pieces of decorative coral, believed to come from the Mediterranean, red glass, and copper alloys.

See https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cd9241dq40qo for text and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vODQeKVOwGw for video

[trubandloki]

How do they know things were intentionally broken or bent out of shape?
Could it just as likely be this is how someone disposed of lots of their broken things?

[Christa_P]

I was wondering about the conclusions as well. It could be that a storage building on a farm or estate burned and this was where they buried the remnants, something that could easily happen in the days where they relied on various forms of fire for lighting.

[BWP]

Tool marks, at a guess.

[hoopoe]

When I have visited the British Museum in the past, I always loved looking at the old bits and horse related items. One think I noted is that all of todays “latest new bit” is not really all that new. Many ancient examples of the same designs

[blackbeauty]

If these items were destroyed accidently they would have reused the metal to make new items. Metals are rarely found in waste deposits because they are infinitely recyclable. And its way easier to remelt something than mine new metals.

They know this hoard was an intentional deposit because the only reason to waste metal in this way would be religious/spiritual beliefs. IDK about the funeral bit because these things are different in every culture but I’m sure the experts in this time period have reasons to believe that. It would statement of your wealth/power/religious conviction to have so many valuable items buried with you.

edit: I shouldn’t have said religion is the only reason, there are also “hide your valuables in times on conflict” hoards. But those are coins and jewelry and the like, not whole chariots.

[Janet]

The other reason things were buried, in that time, was to hide them, with plans to retrieve them later. This is usually silver or gold, but sometimes weapons.

[2DogsFarm]

Agree the objects were likely owned by someone(s) of wealth.
I surmise from this:

“Some of the most significant items include parts of more than seven four-wheeled wagons and two-wheeled chariots; elaborate harnesses for at least 14 ponies”

Along with the description of how some appeared purposely damaged. The bowl with the center bent in, making it useless.

[clanter]

@Janet

over 800 iron age items,

and I thought we were tack hoarders

[findeight]

These days they can do microscopic and spectroscopic analysis of metals to reveal many things. They can even identify where the metals were mined and put an approximate date on when it was made using composition.

Since this was a contextual find they likely compared it to other sites in the area and time period and could conclude it was probably funereal. Or not.

[Willesdon]

My favourite example of a Yorkshire chariot burial is the one at Wetwang, in the East Riding. Not only is the name of the village worth a smile but when first found everyone was excited about a high status warrior burial, with chariot, weapons and other significant goods. Chariot burials are rare. When further analysis was done, however, it proved to be high status WOMAN buried with a chariot, weapons and other significant goods. It necessitated some radical rethinking about Iron Age society and the role of women.

[StormyDay]

@Willesdon

My favourite example of a Yorkshire chariot burial is the one at Wetwang, in the East Riding. Not only is the name of the village worth a smile but when first found everyone was excited about a high status warrior burial, with chariot, weapons and other significant goods. Chariot burials are rare. When further analysis was done, however, it proved to be high status WOMAN buried with a chariot, weapons and other significant goods. It necessitated some radical rethinking about Iron Age society and the role of women.

I read an article not too long ago talking about how they have been re-examining the skeletons of many pre-Roman burials in the UK and have found that a lot of them are actually women! There’s now some speculation that the society of that time was female dominated. The Romans had said so but it had mostly been dismissed since they wrote some other crazy stuff like dog headed men and people with faces in their chest.

[skydy]

Very interesting. Thanks. Here’s another article:

For 3 Years, They Quietly Dug Up One of the Biggest Treasures in England

[Willesdon]

In response to the NYT article saying UK law on treasure is “complicated”, no it’s not. If more than 300 years old and of precious metal it is ‘treasure trove’ and belongs to the crown (i.e. government). The landowner and the finder share a financial reward. That’s not complicated.

There is a really useful voluntary programme, run by the Government, called the Portable Antiquities Scheme whereby detectorists are actively encouraged to contact museum staff with any and all finds so the ever increasing number can be properly recorded. Since archeology is something of a national hobby, the majority of detectorists are really keen to learn more about what they find, often it’s far more about knowledge than any monetary value. Prosecution for the illegal sale of found items is also well publicised.

[Janet]

@Willesdon

If more than 300 years old and of precious metal it is ‘treasure trove’

But it IS a little bit more complocated in this case, since most of it is not “precious metal”.

[Willesdon]

Age here. The status of treasure trove is decided by a corners court. I should have said and/or precious metal. It becomes complicated when human skeletons are found because up to a certain age they may require a police investigation. I don’t know the age precisely - probably 100yrs - because I’ve only been marginally involved with Saxon ones.

[Janet]

@Willesdon

‘treasure trove’

It looks as if this is the actual text which applies here:

(2) An object satisfies this paragraph if—

(a)it provides an exceptional insight into an aspect of national or regional history, archaeology or culture by virtue of one or more of the following—

(i)its rarity as an example of its type found in the United Kingdom,

(ii)the location, region or part of the United Kingdom in which it was found, or

(iii)its connection with a particular person or event; or

(b)although it does not, on its own, provide such an insight, it is, when found, part of the same find as one or more other objects, and provides such an insight when taken together with those objects.

https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2023/404/made

I can’t find text which makes something “treasure” JUST due to age.