Iron Age hoard shows the North was richer than everyone thought

Telegraph

25-03-2025

A newly discovered Iron Age hoard has revealed that the North of England was conspicuously wealthy 2,000 years ago.
The British Museum and Durham University have announced the discovery of a major find in Melsonby, North Yorkshire.
The 'Melsonby Hoard' consists of more than 800 items, including four and two-wheel chariots driven by the Iron Age elite.
Archaeological work at the site, first stumbled upon by detectorist Peter Heads in 2021, has unearthed remains of an unprecedented set of seven vehicles.
Digs have also unearthed metal fittings for even more chariots, along with ornate spears, cauldrons and other trinkets affordable only to the extremely wealthy.
Many artefacts show rare evidence of having been gathered together and burnt on a pyre, suggesting that rulers in the North quite literally had money to burn.
The archaeological consensus has generally held that the North was not as economically connected or prosperous as the South of England at the beginning of the Roman period.
Prof Tom Moore, head of the department of archaeology at Durham University, said: 'The Melsonby Hoard is of a scale and size that is exceptional for Britain and probably even Europe.
'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.
'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.'
Dr Sophia Adams, of the British Museum, told The Telegraph: 'This vast collection of high-quality products was deliberately damaged and buried even though they were in a useable condition.
'To take such wealth out of circulation suggests the process of breaking and burying was important to the community and perhaps to the veneration of an individual.'
She added that no human remains had been found on the site with the treasures, suggesting that the fire was not funerary but served some other purpose.
Artefacts at the site date back to when the Roman Empire was establishing a permanent presence in Britain. Roman influences had already opened up the South of Britain to new luxuries and fashions enjoyed by the elite.
While the Melsonby finds show that Northern rulers enjoyed vast wealth in their own right, they may have lagged behind when it came to fashion.
Restraints for ponies found at the site show that they were devoted with coral, a preferred ornament which officials believe went out of fashion further south about a century before the dates of the Melsonby Hoard.
The site has been slowly excavated by a Durham team since 2022, with advice from the British Museum.
The Yorkshire Museum is now launching a fundraising campaign to buy the hoard for display.
Dr Andrew Woods, senior curator at the Yorkshire Museum, said: 'This Iron Age hoard is an unprecedented find in the North which will help us to understand more about this remarkable period in our history. We have the exciting opportunity to save the hoard for the nation and the people of Yorkshire.'