In what is being hailed as one of the largest and most significant recent Iron Age discoveries, a nearly 2000-year-old cemetery has been discovered in Yorkshire, England—with 150 well-preserved bodies inside.
The dream of a find, which is being described as “rare” and “internationally important” by archaeologists, was made by someone who might see it as more of a nightmare: a property developer. The developer had been working on building new homes, but called in archaeologists as soon as he made the discovery.
Uncovering artifacts
The cemetery contains 75 barrows, or burial mounds, and feature a wealth of possessions, including jewelry, 360 amber and glass beads, pots, spears, swords, and a shield.
It appears that the cemetery dates to the British Iron Age, which lasted between 800 BCE and 43 CE, when the Roman conquest began. Whether or not the remains uncovered were indigenous to the area—in this case, belonging to the Arras culture—or if they were migrants from the rest of Europe is uncertain at this point.
A picture of the site. Credit: MAP Archeology
Such a large site will not be studied overnight; already being planned is the largest study of an Iron Age population in 35 years, which naturally will take a lot of slow, careful work.
“It will take several years to complete this work but an assessment report will be produced within six months of completion on the site, which will reveal further details,” Peter Morris from property developers David Wilson Homes told The Guardian.
But what they may uncover will likely be, ahem, mounds of new knowledge. Besides determing whether or not the people are indigenous, researchers also hope to determine how they died, whether they are related, if they have useful DNA (and what genes they might have), and what stresses their bodies suffered in life.
“We are hoping that these findings shed light on the ritual of Iron-Age burial—and, as we can assume from the shield and sword burials, these were significant members of society, so our understanding of culture and key figures of the time could really be enhanced,” site director Paula Ware of MAP Archaeological Practice told The Guardian.
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Image credit: MAP Archaeological Practice
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