Melsonby Hoard – an important Iron Age Hoard revealed

Mar 25, 2025

of the 2 mask-like human faces decorating the shoulder of the lidded vessel or cauldron from the Melsonby hoard, shown upside down, as found during excavation. © Department of Archaeology, Durham University

The Melsonby Hoard is one of the largest and most significant Iron Age finds ever uncovered in the UK. The hoard contains over 800 objects from the Iron Age, dating back around 2,000 years. Early analysis suggests the items were buried in the first century AD, around the time of the Roman conquest of southern Britain.

Discovered and reported in December 2021 by metal detectorist Peter Heads, the Melsonby Hoard was excavated in 2022 by a team of archaeologists from Durham University, with advice from the British Museum and over £120,000 in grant funding from Historic England. The Yorkshire Museum is launching a fundraising campaign to secure the hoard for the nation.

The quantity and variety of objects are unusual for Iron Age Britain and have important implications for reassessing our understanding of the nature and use of vehicles at the time. The findings could lead to a major re-evaluation of how wealth and status were expressed.

Vehicle components, for which it is hard to find parallels in Britain, include the partial remains of more than seven 4-wheeled wagons and/or 2-wheeled chariots.

The find also includes elaborate harnesses for at least 14 ponies, 3 ceremonial spears and 2 ornate cauldrons or vessels – 1 lidded and likely used as a wine mixing bowl, which had been buried at the bottom of a large ditch. Some harness pieces are adorned with red, Mediterranean coral and coloured glass and are bigger than is typical for the period.

While some of the objects match examples previously found in Britain, for others, the best parallels are found in continental Europe, suggesting long-distance connections and shared technology at the time.

The Melsonby Hoard is of a scale and size that is exceptional for Britain and probably even Europe.

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. 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.

This discovery demonstrates how responsible metal detectorists like Peter Heads, by alerting the authorities, have ensured this material could be safeguarded for the future.

Tom Moore, Head of the Department of Archaeology, Durham University

More finds, cutting-edge scanning technology, and why items were burnt

Cast copper alloy bridle bits, linchpins, rein rings and harness fittings were found within a cluster of 28 iron tyres from horse-drawn vehicles. Some of the tyres had been intentionally bent out of shape, and the vessels were carefully placed upside down.

Nearby, a deposit of spears and pieces of decorated harness for ponies were wrapped together in a bundle and placed into a second ditch. They were removed from the ground as a large block to be excavated later in the laboratory.

Please click on the gallery images to enlarge.

CT scan image of the damaged base of the large Melsonby cauldron showing rare depictions of fish within swirling La Tène style decoration. © µ-VIS X-ray Imaging Centre, University of Southampton

Cutting-edge X-ray CT scanning technology, based at the University of Southampton’s μ-VIS X-Ray Imaging Centre, was used to identify the objects and how they were positioned so they could be excavated without causing damage.

Research on the material, currently in its early stages, is expected to help us understand more about how Iron Age people expressed wealth and status, as well as how and where they travelled and traded.

A large amount of the material within the hoard was either burnt or broken, suggesting a symbolic process of people showing how wealthy and powerful they were by being able to destroy the objects. They might have been burnt on a funerary pyre before being buried, but no human remains were found.

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. 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.

Dr Andrew Woods, Senior Curator, Yorkshire Museum