Hostname: page-component-745bb68f8f-b6zl4 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-01-12T12:40:55.880Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Winchester Hoard: A Find of Unique Iron Age Gold Jewellery from Southern England

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 April 2011

J D Hill ,
Anthony J Spence ,
Susan La Niece  and
Sally Worrell
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

An unusual group of gold jewellery was discovered by a metal detectorist near Winchester in southern England in 2000. The hoard included two possibly unique massive necklaces made in a clearly classical style, but different from typical classical necklaces and from the torcs and collars of Iron Age Europe. The hoard also contained extremely rare gold versions of types of brooches commonly made in bronze and iron in north-west Europe during the first century BC, the end of the pre-Roman Iron Age. This paper describes these unique objects and the results of an archaeological investigation of their find spot. Detailed scientific analysis of the objects’ technology has proven crucial for interpreting their origins and broader significance. Finally, the broader consequences of the find for interpreting the significant changes that took place in southern Britain in the century before the Roman conquest are discussed.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Antiquaries Journal , Volume 84 , September 2004 , pp. 1 - 22
Copyright
Copyright © The Society of Antiquaries of London 2004

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Artamonov, M I 1969. Treasures from the Scythian Tombs, LondonGoogle Scholar
Bradley, R 1990. The Passage of Arms: An Archaeological Analysis of Prehistoric Hoards and Votive Deposits, CambridgeGoogle Scholar
Bradley, R 2000. The Archaeology of Natural Places, LondonGoogle Scholar
Brailsford, J and Stapley, J 1972. ‘The Ipswich tores’, Proc Prehist Soc., 38, 219–34CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Briggs, D, Haselgrove, C and King, C E 1992. ‘Iron Age and Roman coins from Hayling Island temple’, Brit Numis J, 62, 1–62Google Scholar
Collin, A 1998. Chronologie des oppida de la Gaul non méditerranéenne, ParisCrossRefGoogle Scholar
Collis, J R 1968. ‘Excavations at Owslebury, Hants: an interim report’, Antiq J, 48, 18–31CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Collis, J R 1970. ‘Excavations at Owslebury, Hants: a second interim report’, Antiq J, 50, 246–61CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Collis, J R (ed) 2001. Society and Settlement in Iron Age Europe, SheffieldGoogle Scholar
Cowell, M 1992. ‘An analytical survey of the British Celtic gold coinage’, in Mays (ed) 1992, 207–33Google Scholar
Creighton, J 2000. Coins and Power in Late Iron Age Britain, CambridgeCrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cunliffe, B W 1987. Greeks, Romans and Barbarians: Spheres of Interaction, LondonGoogle Scholar
Cunliffe, B W 1995. Iron Age Britain, LondonGoogle Scholar
Cunliffe, B W 2000. The Danebury Environs Programme: The Prehistory of a Wessex Landscape, OxfordGoogle Scholar
Eluère, C 1987. ‘Celtic gold tores’, Gold Bulletin, 20, I ii, 22–37CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Feugére, M 1985. Les Fibules en Gaule Méridonale de la Conquête à la Fin du Cinquième Siecle aprés J-C, ParisGoogle Scholar
Fitzpatrick, A P 1984. ‘The deposition of La Tène Iron Age metal work in watery contexts in southern England’, in Aspects of the Iron Age in Central Southern England (eds Cunliffe, B W and D, Miles), 178–90, OxfordGoogle Scholar
Fitzpatrick, A P 1992. ‘The Snettisham, Norfolk, hoards of Iron Age torques: sacred or profane?’, Antiquity, 66, 395–8CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fitzpatrick, A P 1997. Archaeological Excavations on the Route of the A27 Westhampnett Bypass, West Sussex. Vol 2: The Cemeteries, SalisburyGoogle Scholar
Fitzpatrick, A P 2001. ‘Cross-channel exchange, Hengistbury Head, and the end of hillforts’, in Collis (ed) 2001, 82–97Google Scholar
Fitzpatrick, A P and Megaw, J V S 1987. ‘Further finds from Le Câtillon Hoard’, Proc Prehist Soc, 53, 433–44CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fitzpatrick, A P and Morris, E (eds) 1994. The Iron Age in Wessex: Recent Work, SalisburyGoogle Scholar
Fulford, M and Timby, J 2000. Late Iron Age and Roman Silchester: Excavations on the Site of the Forum-Basilica 1977, 1980–86, LondonGoogle Scholar
Gebhard, M 1991. Die Fibeln aus dem Oppidum von Manching, FrankfurtGoogle Scholar
Hartmann, A 1980. ‘Analyses of British prehistoric gold and some British ores’, in Bronze Age Gold Work of the British Isles (ed Taylor, J J), 138–41, CambridgeGoogle Scholar
Haselgrove, C C 1982. ‘Wealth, prestige and power: the dynamics of late Iron Age centralization in south eastern England’, in Ranking, Resource and Exchange (eds Renfrew, A C R and Shennan, S), 79–88, CambridgeGoogle Scholar
Haselgrove, C C 1989. ‘The later Iron Age in southern Britain and beyond’, in Research on Roman Britain 1960–89 (ed M, Todd), 1–18, LondonGoogle Scholar
Haselgrove, C C 1993. ‘The development of British Iron Age coinage’, Numis Chron, 153, 31–64Google Scholar
Haselgrove, C C 1994. ‘Coinage and currency in Wessex’, in Fitzpatrick and Morris (eds) 1994, 22–5Google Scholar
Haselgrove, C C 1999. ‘The Iron Age’, in The Archaeology of Britain (eds Hunter, J R and Ralston, I B M), 113–34, LondonGoogle Scholar
Hattatt, R 1987. Brooches of Antiquity, OxfordGoogle Scholar
Hill, J D 1995. ‘The pre-Roman Iron Age in Britain and Ireland: an overview’, J World Prehist, 9/1, 47–98CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hill, J D 2002. ‘Not just about the potters wheel: making, using and depositing Middle and Late Iron Age pottery in south-east England’, in Prehistoric Britain: The Ceramic Basis (eds A, Woodward and Hill, J D), 143–60, OxfordGoogle Scholar
Hook, D R. ‘Unpublished semi-quantitative analyses of Snettisham hoards G to L for the Treasure process’, The British MuseumGoogle Scholar
Hook, D R and Needham, S P 1989. ‘A comparison of recent analyses of British Late Bronze Age gold work with Irish parallels’, Jewellery Studies, 3, 15–24Google Scholar
Hunter, F 1997. ‘Iron Age hoarding in Scotland and northern England’, in Reconstructing Iron Age Societies (eds Gwilt, A and Haselgrove, C C), 108–33, OxfordGoogle Scholar
King, A C and Soffe, G 1994. ‘The Iron Age and Roman temple on Hayling Island, Hampshire’, in Fitzpatrick and Morris (eds) 1994, 114–16Google Scholar
King, A C and Soffe, G 2001. ‘Internal organization and deposition at the Iron Age temple on Hay ling Island, Hampshire’, in Collis (ed) 2001, 111–24Google Scholar
Krämer, W 1971. ‘Silberne Fibelpaare aus dem Letzten vorchristlischen Jahrundert’, Germania, 49, 111–32Google Scholar
La Niece, S and Hill, J D forthcoming. ‘A unique 1st century BC hoard of gold from southern Britain: an interface between the Celtic and classical worlds’, in Actas del I Symposium International sobre Tecnologia del oro Antiguo: Europay America. Madrid 2002 (eds A Perea, I Montero and O Gracia-Vuelta)Google Scholar
Leake, R C, Bland, D J and Cooper, C 1993. ‘Source characterization of alluvial gold from mineral inclusions and internal compositional variation’, Trans Inst Mining Metallurgy, 102, B65–B82Google Scholar
Mays, M (ed) 1992. Celtic Coinage: Britain and Beyond, OxfordGoogle Scholar
Northover, J P 1992. ‘Materials issues in the Celtic coinage’, in Mays (ed) 1992, 235–99Google Scholar
Ogden, J 1982. Jewellery of the Ancient World, LondonGoogle Scholar
Perry, B 1982. ‘Excavations at Bramdean, Hampshire 1973–1977’, Proc Hampshire Fld Club Archaeol Soc, 38, 57–74Google Scholar
Raftery, B 1984. La Tène in Ireland: Problems of Origin and Chronology, MarburgGoogle Scholar
Sharples, N M 1990. ‘Late Iron Age society and continental trade in Dorset’, in Les Gaulois d'Armorique (eds A Duval et al.), 299–304, RennesGoogle Scholar
Stanford, S C 1974. Croft Ambrey, HerefordGoogle Scholar
Stead, I M 1991. ‘The Snettisham treasure: excavations in 1990’, Antiquity, 65, 447–65CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stead, I M 1998. The Salisbury Hoard, StroudGoogle Scholar
Stone, E 1987. ‘Aspects of later Iron Age metalcraft in southern Britain’, unpublished BA dissertation, University of OxfordGoogle Scholar
Tassinari, S 1993. Il Vasellami Bronzeo di Pompei, RomeGoogle Scholar
Whinney, R 1994. ‘Oram's Arbour: the Middle Iron Age enclosure at Winchester, Hampshire’, in Fitzpatrick and Morris (eds) 1994, 86–90Google Scholar