Through advanced scientific testing, fragments of copper alloy unearthed from one of Britain’s most significant archaeological sites have been identified as parts of a highly uncommon Iron Age helmet. This groundbreaking discovery was made by the British Museum, which had been working on a 15-year project to analyze 14 hoards of gold, silver, and bronze torcs (stiff, twisted metal rings worn as jewelry) found at Snettisham, Norfolk, between 1948 and the 1990s.
According to Dr. Julia Farley, the Iron Age curator at the Museum and co-editor of The Snettisham Hoards, this object is particularly unusual, as there are fewer than 10 known Iron Age helmets in Britain, each of them distinct from the others.
“There is a reason why everyone was so surprised in that room… helmets from Iron Age pre-Roman Britain, are just vanishingly rare,” she told the BBC. “ And this one is a one-off, it’s got a kind of nasal bridge which is really unusual and these little brow pieces and it’s all hammered out from incredibly thin sheet bronze, and that’s a tremendously skilled thing to be able to do.”
One of the most eye-opening aspects of the study was the confirmation that Iron Age metalworkers had mastered the technique of mercury gilding, a method that involved applying gold to bronze using a toxic mercury-gold amalgam. This was used to make both the helmet and the vast collection of torcs from the Snettisham hoards.
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“We didn’t know they could do this in Britain 2,000 years ago,” Dr. Farley confirmed.
The helmet fragments, once thought to be parts of a vessel, were long considered one of the unresolved mysteries of the Snettisham Hoards, said Dr. Jody Joy, former European Iron Age curator at the British Museum and one of the leading researchers on the project. He explained that Fleur Shearman, a metals conservator, had carefully reconstructed the materials, essentially assembling them like a complex archaeological jigsaw puzzle.
Pieces of copper alloy that were put together to form part of the rare Iron Age helmet. (Trustees of the British Museum).
Now the senior archaeology curator at the Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology at Cambridge University, Dr. Joy described this as “one of the most exciting discoveries” during his tenure at the British Museum.
While much of the helmet was missing, Dr. Farley speculated it might not have been fully intact when it was buried. Most likely, she thinks, it was saved for personal or sentimental reasons, and might have even been used to carry other objects (like the torcs, for example)
The First In-Depth Look at the Snettisham Hoards
More than 80% of the Iron Age (800 BC to 43 AD) torcs ever found in the United Kingdom come from the fields and woodlands of Ken Hill near Snettisham. Approximately 400 torcs have been discovered in all, in various sizes reflecting the fact they could be worn as bracelets, necklaces, arm rings, or neck rings. More than 60 of the recovered rings were intact or near intact, including the Snettisham Great Torc, one of the most elaborate golden objects to come from ancient-world excavations.
These torcs could be made from gold, silver, or bronze, and for a long time they functioned as a form of currency (before coins came along). Yet they weren’t always traded, instead being worn as jewelry or keepsakes for an indefinite period.
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The torcs had been largely left unexamined for many years, prompting the British Museum to launch this extensive research project in collaboration with Norwich Castle Museum, which holds part of the collection.
Cutting-edge scientific analysis, including the use of electron microscopes, allowed the British Museum researchers to uncover intricate details of these ringed objects, such as wear patterns and polishing on areas that would have been in contact with the body or clothing.
The torcs came in a range of sizes and were buried in 14 separate Iron Age metal hoards recovered in Norfolk. (Trustees of the British Museum).
The team worked closely with a skilled metalworker, who recreated the labor-intensive process of crafting metal items of this nature, using the same methodologies as the Iron Age artisans.
“He showed how intensive the process was, how long it would have taken to get the wires into the same circumference and twist them together,” Dr. Joy explained.
An Egalitarian Cultural Artifact
The team confirmed that the torcs (metal rings) were likely worn by men, women, and even younger individuals, rather than being reserved exclusively for high-status men.
“When people imagine someone wearing the Great Torc, they’re imagining a man with a twirly moustache, but actually when you know the sheer breadth of sizes [found at Snettisham] we should assume they’re being worn by everybody,” Dr. Farley stated.
It seems that most of the torcs were buried at Ken Hill within a short period of time, which raises a question: why?
The wear and tear on these valuable and valued items was significant, the researchers concluded, as it suggested they’d been worn by their owners for a long time and were prized possessions.
“To us it seems really weird to put valuable stuff in the ground unless you are trying to hide it,” Dr. Farley said. “It’s probably a sacred location where people are making these offerings – there’s even a Roman temple there later.”
Dr. Farley thinks all of this may have had something to do with the widespread introduction of coins at this time in Iron Age Britain.
“Our theory is these torcs are too special, too unique and too important to be melted down and turned into coins, and instead people decided to have a ceremony to bring people together and put them in the ground.”
The Great Torc is made from 64 wires in eight separate coils and was found at Snettisham in 1950. (Trustees of the British Museum).
Dr. Joy joined his colleague in this line of speculation, commenting on how difficult it can be to understand the practices and belief systems of long-lost cultures.
“I think there’s an inherent bias people have that you have to have a pyramid or a temple or a king with a crown to represent a complicated society,” Dr Joy said. “They [the residents of Iron Age Norfolk] had the mechanism to make this stuff, to source the gold, to wear it in a society setting which we don’t really understand and then put it in the ground in a complicated way.”
“These people are just as sophisticated and intelligent as we are, Dr. Farley chimed in. “I hope people will look at the material from Snettisham and feel a little bit of both of those things – recognition, but also the wonder of looking into a different world.”
Top image: A recreation by artist Craig Williams showing the nose and eyebrow pieces that first alerted an expert that the fragments might be a helmet.
Source: Trustees of the British Museum.
By Nathan Falde
Source: www.ancient-origins.net