More on the #MelsonbyHoard on Radio 4's #StartTheWeek today www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...

Ornate metal objects, predominantly associated with horse harnesses e.g. strap fittings, a bit, finials, terrets, strap unions, a yoke fitting, possible tracery elements, a decorative openwork fitting, a linchpin and nave band.

Bent iron tyres, hub elements and U-shaped iron brackets in situ.

This #IronworkThursday we had to share the Melsonby Hoards again! Located near a 'royal site' and dominated by ornate horse harness and vehicle parts, it broadens our understanding of wheeled transport and elite mortuary practices in Iron Age Britain.

🆓 doi.org/10.15184/aqy...

🏺 #Archaeology

The Melsonby Hoards: rerouting the evidence for vehicles in Iron Age Britain « Archaeology# « Cambridge Core Blog Our article for Antiquity provides the first overview of the Melsonby Hoards, probably the largest deposit of Iron Age metalwork ever encountered in Britain. Radiocarbon dating confirmed that the hoar...

The #Melsonby Hoards - nearly 950 Iron Age objects buried c. 40 BC–AD 40 - reveal Britain’s first evidence for four‑wheeled wagons, as well as other types of vehicle. 🚗👀 Read the #blog and #openaccess article!

🔗 https://cup.org/4bf3b1F

#melsonbyhoards #ironage #archaeology @antiquity.ac.uk

Very interested to hear more about the PhD in due course 👏🏻

Claire Harris in orange hat and waterproof smiling to camera.

Sadie Watson in pink/peach/maroon jacket smiling to camera.

✨Spring News✨ Claire Harris and Sadie Watson - MOLA - have joined the Carena Institute of Sustainable Archaeologies at Birkbeck as Honorary Research Fellows! They will teach a new BA module Sustainable Futures for Archaeology and co-supervise PhD research on London-based community archaeology!!

Our next seminar is on Tuesday 7 April at 18.00.

Sophia Adams will be talking about the extraordinary finds in the Melsonby Hoard

"Accumulating wealth: the growing story of the Melsonby Iron Age hoard"

For this seminar we return to the Usha Kasera Lecture Theatre in Old College

Nominations for the 2026 Marsh Charitable Trust Community Archaeology Awards are open, with just two months remaining to submit.

💚 Community Archaeologist of the Year
💚 Community Archaeology Project of the Year

Nominations close at 12 noon on Monday, 25 May 👉 shorturl.at/pr1aP

Chariots, Treasure and Power: secrets of the Melsonby Hoard Authority and ritual revealed as UK’s largest collection of Iron Age metalwork goes on view in a landmark Yorkshire exhibition

Chariots, Treasure and Power: secrets of the Melsonby Hoard

Authority and ritual revealed as UK’s largest collection of Iron Age metalwork goes on view in a landmark Yorkshire exhibition

By John Heywood
@handhyorkshire.bsky.social

This is Archaeology. Collaboration in Action: the excavation and conservation of the Melsonby Hoards YouTube video by Council for British Archaeology

What happens when a chance discovery leads to one of the largest Iron Age finds in England? 🪨

In our latest lecture, Prof. Emily Williams explores the Melsonby Hoards, from excavation through to the complex work of conserving a 210kg mass of interconnected objects

Watch now👉 youtu.be/BpZeeGfnpTs

Vehicles of change: two exceptional deposits of destroyed chariots or wagons from Late Iron Age Britain | Antiquity | Cambridge Core Vehicles of change: two exceptional deposits of destroyed chariots or wagons from Late Iron Age Britain

Vehicles of change: two exceptional deposits of destroyed chariots or wagons from Late Iron Age Britain | Antiquity | Cambridge Core
www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

"One of the most important archaeological finds in British history is going on display! 🛡️
The Melsonby Hoard exhibition opens at the Yorkshire Museum on May 15. See 800+ Iron Age treasures, from chariots to cauldrons, found right here in North Yorkshire. 🏺
#MelsonbyHoard #York #Archaeology #IronAge"

The Melsonby Hoards: rerouting the evidence for vehicles in Iron Age Britain Our article for Antiquity provides the first overview of the Melsonby Hoards, probably the largest deposit of Iron Age metalwork ever encountered in Britain. Radiocarbon dating confirmed that the…

The Melsonby Hoards are "probably the largest deposit of Iron Age metalwork ever encountered in Britain"!

In an #AntiquityBlog, Tom Moore and Sophia Adams discuss the hoards' exciting discovery and the next steps for research and display in the Yorkshire Museum 🏺

www.cambridge.org/core/blog/20...

So great to see the Melsonby Hoards paper out!!! 🔥🛞

This is Archaeology. Collaboration in Action: the excavation and conservation of the Melsonby Hoards A talk with Prof. Emily Williams, exploring the wonders of the Melsonby Hoards.

Join us for the next This is Archaeology lecture, exploring the Melsonby Hoards, one of the largest groups of Iron Age metalwork ever discovered in England.

18 March | 7-8pm | Online

Book your spot 👉 shorturl.at/VEmPD

Free to attend. Please consider donating to help us keep our lectures free.

This is Archaeology. Collaboration in Action: the excavation and conservation of the Melsonby Hoards A talk with Prof. Emily Williams, exploring the wonders of the Melsonby Hoards.

Join us on 18th March for the next This is Archaeology lecture with Prof. Emily Williams, exploring the remarkable Melsonby Hoards, one of the largest groupings of Iron Age metalwork ever discovered in England.

Free to attend (donations welcome) 👉 tinyurl.com/un9kp8z4

Vehicles of change: two exceptional deposits of destroyed chariots or wagons from Late Iron Age Britain | Antiquity Two exceptional metalwork deposits, discovered at Melsonby, North Yorkshire, together constitute one of the largest Iron Age hoards recovered in Britain. Dominated by ornate horse harness and vehicle parts, these first-century AD assemblages provide possibly the first evidence for four-wheeled wagons from Iron Age Britain. Associated geographically and temporally with another hoard found in 1843 and with the Late Iron Age ‘royal site’ at Stanwick, these deposits have the potential to broaden our understanding not only of the varied forms of wheeled transport but also of expressions of wealth, status and elite mortuary practices in Iron Age Britain.

Read the original research in Antiquity 🆓 Vehicles of change: two exceptional deposits of destroyed chariots or wagons from Late Iron Age Britain -
doi.org/10.15184/aqy...
10/10
🧵

@arcdurham.bsky.social @durham.ac.uk

Several smaller metal artefacts from the hoards, predominantly decorated components of horse-riding equipment.

This indicates that the hoard is evidence of a major funerary event, perhaps in honour of an ancestor of Cartimandua, and demonstrates the wealth and connections of the communities at Stanwick 8/10

Remains of a metal cauldron, with a close-up of a fish motif on its base.

The artefacts are predominantly associated with horses, ranging from horse harnesses to horse-drawn vehicles, but other finds include feasting vessels, spears and a large cauldron, possibly a wine-mixing bowl 6/10

Four-wheeled wagon in a glass display case.

Four-wheeled wagons are distributed across Iron Age Europe, but this is the first evidence for their presence in Britain, sharing the closest similarities with two examples from Denmark 5/10

📷 @nationalmuseet.dk / CC BY-SA 3.0

Two corroded iron brackets.

These U-shaped iron brackets found with them are unknown from British two-wheeled chariots, but they share similarities with examples of four-wheeled wagons from mainland Europe 4/10

Several metal rings lying in situ.

The hoards comprise almost 950 metal artefacts, buried intentionally in North Yorkshire in the decades before the Roman conquest of northern England (c. 40BC-AD40). The artefacts, in particular 28 iron tyres, are leading us to rethink Iron Age vehicles 2/10

Archaeologists excavating in a trench filled with iron objects.

NEW The Melsonby Hoards, one of Britain's largest #IronAge metalwork deposits, made the news last year when their discovery was announced, and now the analysis is published in Antiquity!

Learn how they change our understanding of Iron Age Britain in this #AntiquityThread 1/10 🧵

🏺 #Archaeology

👏🏻👏🏻

The Melsonby Hoards: rerouting the evidence for vehicles in Iron Age Britain « Archaeology# « Cambridge Core Blog Our article for Antiquity provides the first overview of the Melsonby Hoards, probably the largest deposit of Iron Age metalwork ever encountered in Britain. Radiocarbon dating confirmed that the hoar...

The #Melsonby Hoards - nearly 950 Iron Age objects buried c. 40 BC–AD 40 - reveal Britain’s first evidence for four‑wheeled wagons, as well as other types of vehicle. 🚗👀 Read the #blog and #openaccess article!

🔗 https://cup.org/4bf3b1F

#melsonbyhoards #ironage #archaeology @antiquity.ac.uk

👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻

A montage of images showing three people smiling at the camera, holding an award, a close up of the award and the Iron Age hoard being excavated from the ground.

Readers of Current Archaeology Magazine have voted to make the Melsonby Hoard Iron Age find its ‘Rescue Project of the Year’.

The hoard was excavated by @arcdurham.bsky.social, including Archaeological Services, with support from The British Museum and Historic England 👉 tinyurl.com/cjfmauj9

We're very excited to have Dr Sophia Adams coming to talk to us about this award winning project in April!

National award for Melsonby Hoard project - Durham University

www.durham.ac.uk/departments/...

👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻

Concluding our first session, Dr Sophia Adams (British Museum) is here to tell us about an amazing Iron Age discovery from North Yorkshire, in ‘The massive Melsonby Iron Age Hoard’ #CALive26