{"id":632620,"date":"2025-12-14T21:03:23","date_gmt":"2025-12-14T21:03:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/632620\/"},"modified":"2025-12-14T21:03:23","modified_gmt":"2025-12-14T21:03:23","slug":"inside-the-melsonby-hoard-discovery","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/632620\/","title":{"rendered":"Inside the Melsonby hoard discovery"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"ironA crushed cauldron that was excavated as part of the hoard. Credit: Department of Archeology\/Durham University. \"Hattie Hattie Russell<\/a> 14\/12\/2025 20:30 4 min <\/p>\n

The Melonsby Hoard, excavated near the village of Melonsby, North Yorkshire, UK, comprises over 800 objects dating to around 2,000 years ago<\/strong>. <\/p>\n

Over 800 artefacts discovered<\/p>\n

It is a highly significant discovery of Iron Age metalwork, including vehicle parts from chariots and wagons<\/strong> (28 iron tyres), a cauldron and bowl possibly for wine mixing, ceremonial spears, and an elaborate horse harness and bridle parts. Some of the harness parts are decorated with red, Mediterranean coral, and coloured glass, and are larger than those of other harnesses from the same period. <\/p>\n

The hoard was discovered in December 2021 by Peter Heads<\/strong>, a metal detectorist, in a field near Melsonby. The British Museum, Historic England, and Durham University\u2019s Department of Archaeology and Archaeological Services teams excavated the site in 2022<\/strong> and preserved the artefacts before analysing the finds. <\/p>\n

\"Britain's<\/a><\/p>\n

Many items from the hoard were broken and burnt, suggesting that whoever owned them would have taken part in a symbolic process of showcasing their wealth and power by destroying objects<\/strong>. The objects may have also been burnt on a funeral pyre before being buried; however, no human remains were discovered at the site. <\/p>\n

\u201cWhoever 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<\/strong>. The destruction of so many high-status objects, evident in this hoard, is also of a scale rarely seen in Iron Age Britain and demonstrates that the elites of northern Britain were just as powerful as their southern counterparts.\u201d Said Professor Tom Moore from the Department of Archaeology, a British and European Iron Age specialist. <\/p>\n

\"hoard\"Iron Age metal work that is partially excavated named ‘the block’. Credit: Department of Archaeology\/Durham University. <\/p>\n

The Melsonby Hoard is exceptional in size for Britain and Europe. The discovery of this site and its artefacts could lead to a significant re-evaluation of how both status and wealth were expressed during the Iron Age<\/strong>, as well as of how researchers understand the nature and use of vehicles during this period. <\/p>\n

Further information on the excavation<\/p>\n

The excavation was carried out by Durham University\u2019s Department of Archaeology and Archaeological Services, and the British Museum provided advice to the team. Historic England granted \u00a3120,000 in funding<\/strong> to this project. <\/p>\n

The artefacts will be kept at Durham University to be catalogued and stabilised during the legal treasure case, and the Yorkshire Museum will launch a fundraising campaign to acquire the hoard<\/strong>. <\/p>\n

News reference:<\/p>\n

Archaeologists unearth one of the UK\u2019s largest Iron Age hoards – Durham University<\/a>. Durham University and Durham University. 25th March 2025. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A crushed cauldron that was excavated as part of the hoard. Credit: Department of Archeology\/Durham University. Hattie Russell…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":632621,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5018,3,4],"tags":[2397,56950,748,393,4884,195525,1144,712,16,15,1764],"class_list":{"0":"post-632620","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-britain","8":"category-uk","9":"category-united-kingdom","10":"tag-archaeology","11":"tag-artefacts","12":"tag-britain","13":"tag-england","14":"tag-great-britain","15":"tag-hoard","16":"tag-northern-ireland","17":"tag-scotland","18":"tag-uk","19":"tag-united-kingdom","20":"tag-wales"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115719951303870369","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/632620","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=632620"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/632620\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/632621"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=632620"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=632620"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=632620"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}