The people of Iron Age Winchester
The hoard has been dated to around 75–25BC, a time of significant social change in southern England. Successful Iron Age chiefs had contacts with tribal leaders on the continent and Roman commanders and ambassadors too. Feasting items and even imported wine amphorae turn up on burial sites, and early coins suggest that some of these leaders were proclaiming themselves ‘Kings’ for the first time. This was the time just before the Romans first began threatening invasion, although the chief leaders would certainly have known about, and perhaps even been involved with, the troubles tribespeople on the continent were having with the Roman Army.
The Iron Age British tribes did not write, and so we don’t have any documents from their perspective. What we do have, though, are the Roman and Greek writers’ impressions of these early Brits. They describe them as wearing brightly checked and striped woollen clothes, taking pride in their fierceness, and wearing their hair long. Men also cultivated their facial hair – Diodorus Siculus, perhaps intending to mock the barbarians with their daft fashions, wrote: ‘When they are eating, the moustache becomes entangled in the food, and when they are drinking the drink passes, as it were, through a sort of strainer’. But despite their unappealing eating and drinking habits, leaders in the Winchester area were clearly important people to befriend.
Winchester was known as Venta Belgarum by the Romans, meaning ‘town of the Belgae tribe’, and shortly after the invasion in 43AD, it grew into the sixth-largest Roman town in Britannia. The Belgae were perhaps people whose relatives also lived in north France and what is now modern-day Belgium. Julius Caesar, during his campaigns in Gaul (58–51BC), described the Belgae as the bravest of the Gaulish tribes, partly because traders didn’t deal with them and so they hadn’t been introduced to imported goods that might weaken their fighting spirit.
Although we don’t know who owned the precious items of the Winchester Hoard, we do know that they were carefully and intentionally deposited. Roman writers describe that many of the local British people’s sacred shrines were in watery places – bogs, rivers and lakes – but archaeologists have also identified a pattern of deposits in dry, open places on high ground, especially of torcs.
The excavation at the find site didn’t reveal any evidence of a building or man-made shrine at the top of the hill in the field. It’s possible that the appeal of the site was that it was entirely open, or perhaps the focus was a natural grouping of stones or trees.
It’s likely that these ‘dry land hoards’ were a different type of ritual offering to the water-based activities. Perhaps the watery offerings related to the earth or underworld, and hill offerings related to the sky or upper-world. We can’t be sure. Further research and further finds will help us build a clearer picture of this exciting time at the end of prehistory.
See also:
Blair Drummond Torc Hoard
Sedgeford Torc
Hallaton Treasure
Roman Slave Shackle
A dark reminder
Date: 200–400AD, Roman
Where, when and how found: Headbourne Worthy, near Winchester, Hampshire; 1992; metal detecting
Finder: Anonymous
Where is it now? Returned to finder
Visit: Silchester Roman city walls and amphitheatre, Hampshire (site managed by English Heritage)
www.english-heritage.org.uk
Museum of London, London
www.museumoflondon.org.uk
In 1992, a keen detectorist was searching near the line of the Roman Road that ran between Venta Belgarum (Winchester) and Calleva Atrebatum (Silchester), in modern-day Hampshire when he discovered this corroded, 357g piece of wrought iron. This troubling object is a human shackle – used to bind the ankles of a Roman slave.
Experts can’t pin down its age more tightly than 200–400AD, as it was likely to have been used for many decades before it was finally lost or thrown away. This particular type of shackle, the ‘Bavay’ type, seems to have been used mostly in rural parts of Gaul and Britain, possibly to control slaves being transported, or to secure farm workers after a day’s work. Figurines from the Roman period in Britain have been discovered showing naked men, crouched and with bound feet and hands, and similar examples of shackles have been discovered across England.
The ‘necessity’ of slavery
Slaves were integral to the functioning of the Roman Empire, and attitudes to ‘owning’ another person were very different to our modern ideas. For Romans, slaves were one of the greatest imports from new territories; enemies captured in war were enslaved rather than killed, and the Romans traded with regions outside their control in order to meet the demand for slaves.
Experts have estimated that a quarter of all people living under Roman rule were slaves. They were the property of their owners, rather than people in their own right – they had no rights, couldn’t legally own anything and were not allowed to marry or have a legitimate family. One fragment of a slave sale guarantee discovered in London records the purchase of a slave girl: ‘Vegetus . . . has bought and received . . . the girl Fortunata, or by whatever name she is known, from Jublains [in N. France] from Albicianus . . . for 600 denarii.’ The guarantee goes on to confirm ‘that the girl in question is transferred in good health, that she is liable not to wander or to run away’.
Some slaves were treated relatively well, especially those who were educated and could work as musicians, doctors or teachers. Other slaves were abused and brutalised, and death was preferable to life under shackle. Slaves were sometimes used in games and tournaments held in amphitheatres, as ‘bait’ for wild animals, or they were trained as gladiators. Documents record that professional ‘slave catchers’ were at work in the Roman Empire, helping owners find and return runaways. When a runaway slave was caught, he or she would be fitted with an iron collar and sometimes branded on the forehead. Some of these inscribed iron slave collars have survived and are now held in museum collections.
There was never a feeling within Rome that slavery was intrinsically wrong. When the Emperor Constantine adopted Christianity into the Roman Empire, around the year 319, he made it illegal to kill a slave, and decreed that they could no longer be branded on the face, only on the arms and legs. But it was thought that Jesus had not preached against slavery, and so it was not really considered immoral or unchristian.
Slavery was only made illegal throughout the whole of the British Empire in 1843 – much of modern Britain was built on the backs of slaves from British colonies. People-trafficking remains a global problem today, and millions of people are forced to work as enslaved or bonded labourers in dangerous conditions and in fear for their lives. This shackle isn’t just about Roman history, it’s a powerful and troubling reminder that slavery is not yet in our past.
See also:
Putney ‘Brothel’ Token
Syston Knife Handle
THE PEOPLE WHO FIND TREASURE
Even in the past, people finding what we now know to be stone tools made by prehistoric man thought that they were tools made by long-dead giants, or petrified lightning bolts. Stone circles, skilfully engineered by early Britons five thousand or more years ago, are described in folklore traditions as frozen giants, fairy rings, or troll circles. Although medieval people might not have had a modern, scientific understanding of what these finds were, they knew that some of them were very special. Discoveries were often made when people disturbed the ground through building or farming, but even back then people found pleasure in searching for ‘treasure’.
Where we do have reports from these early treasure quests, often into burial mounds, they can be frustrating reading – we hear of workers digging though old bones, pieces of burnt pot, a few old beads to get to the ‘treasure’ underneath . . . and often coming up empty-handed. What these tomb raiders dismissed as bits of burnt rubbish getting in the way of the good stuff, were actually the materials that can be so valuable to modern archaeology. They tell us who these peopl
e were, how they were buried, when, and in what sort of structures. Hoards aren’t just about market value or the purity of the gold – they’re about how the items were deposited, why, and by whom. Cutting-edge archaeological analysis means that we can put these finds into the bigger landscape, and build a picture of how people were moving about and using their environment.
Nowadays, more people go looking for treasure than ever before – either beachcombing, fieldwalking or metal detecting. Searching for finds can be immensely rewarding and there are many passionate and incredibly well-informed searchers out there. Their hobby can add enormous amounts to our understanding of Britain’s past, and many detectorists and other finders are valued members of archaeological teams and projects. One of the most significant battlefields in British history was accurately located because of the efforts of skilled and committed metal detectorists (see the Boar Badge of Richard III). Through recording these finds, the public are changing our understanding of Britain’s past.
But metal detecting can also be really destructive if it’s not done responsibly. All land has an owner, including roadside verges and footpaths, and permission must be obtained before you search. In Northern Ireland, using a metal detector to find archaeological objects is illegal without a professional licence.
In archaeology, context is everything – if we don’t know where a find was from, or the details of how it was deposited, valuable information is lost forever. Even though only ‘Treasure’ finds must be reported legally (see here), landowners should insist that detectorists searching on their land report all their finds to the local PAS Finds Liaison Officer. In Scotland, the old laws of Treasure Trove still apply, and all finds of any type must be reported to Treasure Trove Scotland.
The importance of logging finds is showcased by some of the treasures in this book – most of these aren’t legally Treasure, but they are nationally important, and archaeologically priceless. Have a look at the Get Involved chapter (here) for more information on ways to explore our heritage.
Tisbury Hoard
1,000 years of buried bronze with many secrets yet to be revealed
Date: 2000–700BC, early Bronze Age–early Iron Age
Where, when and how found: Tisbury, near Wardour, Wiltshire; 2011; metal detecting
Finder: Anonymous
Where is it now? Salisbury Museum
www.salisburymuseum.org.uk
Also visit: Numerous prehistoric monuments in Wiltshire that were used into the Bronze Age – the most famous are Stonehenge, and the monuments around Avebury
www.english-heritage.org.uk
In 2011, a metal detectorist discovered a spearhead on farmland near Salisbury in Wiltshire. He knew it was Bronze Age – so at least 2,800 years old, and he suspected that there was much more under the soil. With the utmost self-control, he stopped digging and immediately alerted his local Finds Liaison Officer, and the site was excavated and investigated by archaeologists.
The excavation revealed a staggering 114 Bronze Age and Iron Age artefacts and in the surrounding area there were later Iron Age coin deposits, and even deposits from the Roman period. Because of careful reporting by metal detectorists and others, we’re establishing a new understanding of the importance of Tisbury in prehistory.
The initial Tisbury Hoard itself is still in the process of assessment, and not all the artefacts have been cleaned or fully analysed. What is known is that the hoard is a collection of bronze weapons, woodworking tools and other items dating from the early Bronze Age, around 2000BC, to the early Iron Age, around 700BC. There are sword blades, axeheads, leaf-shaped spearheads, knives, chisels, sickles, razors and a few ornaments like pins and fragments of hilts, handles and rivets.
But although the artefacts date from a range of over 1,000 years, they appear to have been buried at the same time, around 700BC. These were clearly treasured items that were either handed between generations or rediscovered while the people were digging or working the land. It’s often assumed that hoards were deposited not long after the metal objects were made, but the Tisbury Hoard shows that these prehistoric people were interested in the past too, using already-ancient artefacts for special ceremonial purposes.
The Bronze Age
Copper working was first introduced to Britain around 2400BC, and bronze working around 2200BC. It marks a shift from the late Stone Age, the Neolithic. The first metal artefacts were probably traded to Britain, and the first skilled metalworkers probably came from the continent. But local people soon learned these new technologies and specifically British traditions of metalwork quickly developed.
The significant aspect of bronze making is that it requires the alloying of tin and copper – but tin ore and copper ore are never found in the same place. It’s likely that the tin used in the Tisbury artefacts came from Cornwall, where it was mined and traded. The copper ore might have come from south Wales. Wiltshire was already a rich and well-connected area – the monumental complexes at Stonehenge, Avebury and surrounds are testament to that – and the importance of metalworking in this area is no surprise.
By the 800s BC the technology was highly refined, and specialist metalworkers created items that were beautiful, functional and strong. Bronze weapons were both effective and prestigious. But there’s also some evidence that by the late Bronze Age people were intentionally removing bronze artefacts from circulation, perhaps to increase demand and improve prestige – if an item is too easy to get hold of and everyone’s got one, it inevitably loses some of its value. There have also been finds of poor-quality bronze axeheads with too much lead content – rendering them useless as axes, but possibly still useful as trading or symbolic items.
To make a bronze sword
To make a bronze sword, a smith crushes copper and tin ores into a coarse powder and then heats them in a crucible in a super-hot fire. Scum and impurities rise up and are discarded, and the molten metal is then poured into a stone or clay mould and allowed to cool and harden. Before modern, accurate thermometers, smiths would have had to be very skilled to achieve the correct fire temperature, otherwise the metal wouldn’t cast properly. And if there had been too many impurities or the balance of metals in the alloy was incorrect, the finished blade would be too fragile or too brittle.
Once the cast metal sword blade has cooled a bit, the blackened and rough blade can be removed, plunged into water and riveted on to a carved wooden handle. Hours of hand polishing would transform the casting into a smooth, sharp and gleaming blade, deadly and beautiful.
It’s quite likely that metallurgists had a special role and status in society – theirs was a magical job, turning rocks into molten liquid, and then into metal. Many folk traditions around the world single out smiths as having special and potentially dangerous powers. It has even been suggested by some folklorists that the origin of King Arthur’s legendary Sword in the Stone originates from forged bronze blades being removed from stone moulds.
Some ritual deposits from the early Iron Age have shown that weapons were intentionally damaged, or ‘killed’ – sometimes even new blades are bent or snapped in two before being thrown into watery graves in rivers, lakes and bogs, or deposited in dry-land hoards. The weapons from Tisbury haven’t undergone this ritual ‘killing’, and appear to have been buried in an area that was never waterlogged. Perhaps they were buried for economic reasons rather than ritual reasons, or the Tisbury Hoard was dedicated to a different set of gods that demanded a different set of rituals and offerings.
Tisbury helps us piece together the activities of our ancestors, but it also raises many questions – why was this spot special to them, what event triggered such a large deposit to be made, why did they hoard already ancient objects, and how do the deposits at this site fit with the changing technologies and ritual practices of the Iron Age?
Thanks to the discipline of the finder, every piece of evidence from the site was preserved, and every find recorded. This is the start of a long process of discovery – there’s a
lot more for Tisbury to teach us yet.
See also:
Milton Keynes Hoard
Near Lewes Hoard
Alnwick Sword
Tanworth Iron Age Comb
A unique high-status hairbrush
Date: 25–70AD, Late Iron Age
Where, when and how found: Tanworth in Arden, Warwickshire; 2006; metal detecting
Finder: Anonymous
Where is it now? Private collector
Visit: Butser Iron Age experimental farm, Hampshire
www.butserancientfarm.co.uk
Lindow Man bog body on display at the British Museum, London
www.britishmuseum.org
Some of the most intriguing finds are ones that combine beauty with function – like this little copper-alloy comb. Weighing 30g, measuring 6.4cm long and discovered in a field by a metal detector in 2006, the Tanworth comb is the only one from this period ever found in Britain.
Comparing the decoration to designs found on mirrors, spoons and horse harness rings, we can safely date the comb to the middle part of the 1st century AD, around the time of the Roman invasion of Britain (43AD). We know the comb was designed, made and used by native British Iron Age people, but we don’t know whether it was made for horses, or people.
When it was new, the comb would have shone a beautiful golden bronze colour. It’s decorated on both sides in the same style as a number of exquisite 2,000-year-old mirrors (see the Pegsdon Mirror). The patterns would have been made with compasses, and the comb was cast by a highly skilled metalworker. It has a hole at the top, so it could be suspended or hung on a cord. We don’t know whether this would have been for when it was stored, when it was used, or whether the hole is simply part of the artistic design.
Britain's Secret Treasures Page 17