The list of Iron Age hoards in Britain comprises significant archaeological hoards of coins, jewellery, precious and scrap metal objects and other valuable items discovered in Great Britain (England, Scotland and Wales) that are associated with the British Iron Age, approximately 8th century BC to the 1st century AD. It includes both hoards that were buried with the intention of retrieval at a later date (personal hoards, founder's hoards, merchant's hoards, and hoards of loot), and also hoards of votive offerings which were not intended to be recovered at a later date, but excludes grave goods and single items found in isolation. Hoards of Celtic coins dating from the time of the Roman occupation of Britain are also included here.
Hoard | Image | Date | Place of discovery | Year of discovery | Current Location | Contents |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Alton Hoard | mid 1st century AD | Alton, Hampshire 51°08′56″N0°58′37″W / 51.149°N 0.977°W | 1996 | British Museum, London | 50 gold staters of Commios, Tincomarus and Epillus (Hoard A) 206 gold staters of Tincomarus and Verica (Hoard B) 1 Roman gold ring 1 Roman gold bracelet [1] [2] | |
Beaminster Hoard | early 1st century | Beaminster, Dorset 50°48′32″N2°44′24″W / 50.809°N 2.740°W | 2003 | Dorset Museum, Dorchester | 160 silver staters [3] | |
Beverley Hoard | mid 1st century BC | Beverley, East Yorkshire 53°50′42″N0°25′37″W / 53.845°N 0.427°W | 1999–2007 | Hull Museums Collections British Museum, London | 110 gold staters [4] [5] | |
Blythburgh Hoard | early 1st century AD | Blythburgh, Suffolk 52°19′N1°36′E / 52.32°N 1.60°E | 2019 | 19 gold staters and quarter staters of Addedomaros, king of the Trinovantes, dating to 45–25 BC [6] | ||
Cheriton Hoard | 80 to 60 BC | Cheriton, Hampshire 51°03′09″N1°10′13″W / 51.05245°N 1.170325°W | 1984 | British Museum, London Winchester City Museum | 50 gold staters and quarter staters [7] | |
Chute Forest Hoard | 80 to 60 BC | Chute Forest, Wiltshire 51°15′57″N1°33′23″W / 51.265865°N 1.556348°W | 1927 | British Museum, London | 36 gold staters [8] | |
Clacton Hoard | 80 to 60 BC | Clacton-on-Sea, Essex 51°47′31″N1°08′46″E / 51.79197°N 1.145973°E | 1898 | British Museum, London | 76 gold staters [9] | |
Climping Hoard | mid 1st century BC | Climping, West Sussex 50°48′47″N0°34′41″W / 50.813°N 0.578°W | 2000 | British Museum, London | 18 gold staters [note 1] [11] | |
Dovedale Hoard | 1st century BC | Reynard's Cave and Kitchen, Dovedale, Derbyshire 53°04′11″N1°47′05″W / 53.0696°N 1.7848°W | 2014 | Buxton Museum and Art Gallery | 26 gold and silver coins, including three pre-conquest Roman coins, and 20 Late Iron Age gold and silver coins belonging to the Corieltauvi tribe [12] | |
Essendon Hoard | 60 BC to 20 BC | Essendon, Hertfordshire 51°45′46″N0°09′11″W / 51.762913°N 0.153169°W | 1992 | British Museum, London | 257 gold coins, 7 swords, 4 spearheads, a dagger and a decorated sheet of bronze that may have faced a wooden shield, various ingots and segments of a gold torc [13] | |
Farmborough Hoard | early 1st century | Farmborough, Somerset 51°20′35″N2°29′02″W / 51.343°N 2.484°W | 1984 | British Museum, London | 61 gold staters [14] | |
Field Baulk Hoard | mid 1st century | Field Baulk, March, Cambridgeshire 52°32′20″N0°05′13″E / 52.539°N 0.087°E | 1982 | British Museum, London | 872 silver coins minted by the Iceni tribe, in a round pot [15] | |
Great Leighs Hoard | mid 1st century BC | Great Leighs, Essex 51°49′37″N0°30′22″E / 51.827°N 0.506°E | 1998–1999 | Chelmsford Museum | 40 gold staters [16] | |
Hallaton Treasure | 1st century AD | Hallaton, Leicestershire 52°33′00″N0°50′00″W / 52.550°N 0.8333°W | 2000 | Harborough Museum | 5,000 silver and gold coins a silver gilt Roman parade helmet jewellery [17] | |
Honingham Hoard | mid 1st century AD | Honingham, Norfolk 52°39′47″N1°06′29″E / 52.663°N 1.108°E | 1954 | Norwich Castle Museum and Art Gallery | 341 Iceni silver coins [18] | |
Ipswich Hoard | 1st century BC | Ipswich, Suffolk 52°03′32″N1°09′22″E / 52.059°N 1.156°E | 1968–1969 | British Museum, London | 6 gold twisted torcs [19] | |
Kimbolton Hoard | mid 1st century BC | Kimbolton, Cambridgeshire 52°18′29″N0°24′25″W / 52.308°N 0.407°W | 2010 | 67 gold staters and one gold quarter-stater [20] | ||
Langstone Hoard | mid 1st century AD | Ringland, Newport 51°36′36″N2°53′53″W / 51.610°N 2.898°W | 2007 | 2 bronze bowls and a bronze wine strainer [21] | ||
Leekfrith torcs | 4th to mid 3rd century BC | Leekfrith, Staffordshire 53°08′13″N2°02′42″W / 53.137°N 2.045°W | 2016 | 4 gold torcs [22] | ||
Little Horwood Hoard | 1st century BC | Little Horwood, Aylesbury Vale, Buckinghamshire 51°58′05″N0°51′00″W / 51.968°N 0.850°W | 2006–2007 | Buckinghamshire County Museum, Aylesbury | 75 staters found over an 11-month period which are said to be part of the Whaddon Chase Hoard [23] [24] [25] | |
Llangoed Hoard | mid 1st century BC | Llangoed Anglesey 53°17′24″N4°05′24″W / 53.290°N 4.090°W | 2021–2022 | Oriel Ynys Môn | Fifteen gold staters of the Corieltauvi tribe [26] | |
Llyn Cerrig Bach Hoard | 4th century BC to 1st century AD | Llyn Cerrig Bach, near Valley, Anglesey 53°15′32″N4°32′24″W / 53.259°N 4.540°W | 1942 | National Museum Cardiff | votive objects deposited over a period of several hundred years, comprising over 150 items of bronze and iron, including 7 swords, 6 spearheads, fragments of a shield, part of a bronze trumpet, 2 gang chains, fragments of iron wagon tyres and horse gear, blacksmith's tools, fragments of two cauldrons, and iron bars [27] | |
Llyn Fawr Hoard | 8th to 7th century BC | Llyn Fawr Lake, Rhigos, Glamorgan 51°43′12″N3°34′05″W / 51.720°N 3.568°W | 1909–1913 | National Museum Cardiff | bronze cauldron, a number of chisels, sickles and socketed axes, a sword, a spearhead, a razor, and horse harness equipment [28] | |
Lochar Moss Hoard | 50 to 200 AD | Lochar Moss, near Dumfries, Dumfries and Galloway 55°05′09″N3°34′50″W / 55.0858829°N 3.5806428°W | 1840s | British Museum, London | brass torc and bronze bowl [29] | |
North Foreland Hoard | early 1st century BC | North Foreland, Kent 51°22′30″N1°26′42″E / 51.375°N 1.445°E | 1999 | Powell-Cotton Museum, Birchington-on-Sea | 63 potin (a bronze alloy with high tin content) coins [30] | |
Peatling Magna Hoard | mid 1st century BC | Peatling Magna, near Market Harborough Leicestershire 52°31′41″N1°07′37″W / 52.528°N 1.127°W | 2012 | Harborough Museum | 10 gold staters minted in northern France or the Low Countries [31] | |
Polden Hill Hoard | 50 AD to 100 AD | Polden Hill, Somerset 51°09′38″N2°55′26″W / 51.160549°N 2.923972°W | 1800 | British Museum, London | about 90 metal artefacts including horse gear and trappings, segments of 3 shields, 6 brooches, 3 bracelets, parts of 2 torcs [32] | |
Riseholme Hoard | 50 BC to 50 AD | Riseholme, Lincolnshire 53°15′54″N0°31′48″W / 53.265°N 0.530°W | 2017 | The Collection, Lincoln Museum | 40 gold staters, 231 silver units, and 11 silver half units attributed to the Corieltauvi tribe. [33] | |
Salisbury Hoard | 3rd century BC [note 2] | Netherhampton, near Salisbury, Wiltshire 51°04′26″N1°47′38″W / 51.074°N 1.794°W | 1988 | British Museum, London | over 600 objects, mostly miniature bronze versions of shields, tools, daggers and spearheads [34] | |
Scole Hoard | mid 1st century BC | Scole, Norfolk 52°21′50″N1°09′22″E / 52.364°N 1.156°E | 1982–1983 | 202 Iceni silver coins and 87 Roman coins [35] | ||
Sedgeford Hoard | 1st century BC | Sedgeford, Norfolk 52°54′N0°33′W / 52.90°N 0.55°W | 2003 | King's Lynn Museum | 39 Gallo-Belgic gold staters, concealed inside a cowbone [36] | |
Shalfleet Hoard | late 1st century BC to early 1st century AD | Shalfleet, Isle of Wight 50°42′04″N1°27′29″W / 50.701°N 1.458°W | 2009 | Sold at Bonhams, 2011. [37] | four large bowl-shaped silver ingots, six small silver fragments and one gold British B (or "Chute") stater of Late Iron Age date. [38] | |
Silsden Hoard | mid 1st century AD | Silsden, West Yorkshire 53°54′50″N1°56′13″W / 53.914°N 1.937°W | 1998 | Cliffe Castle Museum, Keighley | 27 gold coins and a finger ring [39] | |
Snettisham Hoard | mid 1st century BC | Ken Hill, near Snettisham, Norfolk 52°53′06″N0°29′20″E / 52.885°N 0.489°E | 1948–1973 | British Museum, London Norwich Castle Museum | over 150 gold torc fragments (over 70 of which form complete torcs), and various objects made of metal and jet [40] | |
Southend Hoard | 60-50 BC | Southend-on-Sea, Essex 51°32′18″N0°42′52″E / 51.53832°N 0.714513°E | 1986 | British Museum, London | pottery sherds and 33 gold staters [41] | |
South Norfolk Hoard | late 1st century BC | South Norfolk | 2012–2013 | Norwich Castle Museum and Art Gallery | 44 'Norfolk Wolf' debased gold staters [42] [43] | |
South Wight Hoard | late 1st century BC to early 1st century AD | South Wight, Isle of Wight 50°36′00″N1°12′00″W / 50.600°N 1.200°W | 2004 | British Museum, London | 18 gold staters, 138 silver staters, 1 thin silver coin, 7 copper alloy coins of the Roman period, 2 bowl shaped silver ingots, 1 bowl shaped copper alloy ingot, 5 sherds of Iron Age pottery [44] [45] | |
Stanwick Hoard | 50 BC to 100 AD | Stanwick, North Yorkshire 54°30′24″N1°43′32″W / 54.506627°N 1.725548°W | 1843 | British Museum, London | about 180 metal artefacts including four sets of horse harnesses for chariots and a bronze horse head [46] | |
Stirling Hoard | 3rd to 1st century BC | Near Blair Drummond, Stirlingshire 56°10′01″N4°02′38″W / 56.167°N 4.044°W | 2009 | National Museum of Scotland, Edinburgh | 4 gold torcs [47] | |
Stonea Hoard | 20-50 AD | Stonea, Cambridgeshire 52°31′12″N0°08′35″E / 52.519927°N 0.14303°E | 1983 | British Museum, London | pottery beaker and over 850 silver coins [48] | |
Sunbury Hoard | 2nd century BC | Sunbury-on-Thames, Surrey 51°25′19″N0°25′08″W / 51.422°N 0.419°W | 1950 | Museum of London, London | 317 tin alloy coins and 56 fragments, together with fragments of a pottery vessel [49] | |
Syngenta Hoard [note 3] | mid 1st century BC | Jealott's Hill, near Bracknell, Berkshire 51°27′22″N0°44′53″W / 51.456°N 0.748°W | 1998 | Reading Museum | 58 gold coins [50] | |
Tal-y-Llyn Hoard | 1st century AD | near Tal-y-llyn Lake, Cadair Idris, Merionethshire 52°40′19″N3°53′49″W / 52.672°N 3.897°W | 1963 | National Museum Cardiff | 1 brass plaque, fragments from two brass shields, several decorated brass plates (possibly from a ceremonial cart), and part of a Roman lock [51] | |
Whaddon Chase Hoard | 1st century BC | near Whaddon, Aylesbury Vale, Buckinghamshire 52°00′00″N0°49′41″W / 52.000°N 0.828°W | 1849 & 2006 | British Museum, London [52] Buckinghamshire County Museum, Aylesbury | between 450 [53] and 800 [54] and 2,000 gold staters [23] — see also Little Horwood Hoard | |
Whitchurch Hoard | 1st century BC | Whitchurch, Hampshire 51°13′44″N1°20′06″W / 51.229°N 1.335°W | 1987 | Hampshire Museums Service (4 of each type). The remainder sold at Christies, October 1988, lots 236–246. | 34 Gallo-Belgic E gold staters, and 108 British B (or, Chute,) gold staters. [55] | |
Wickham Market Hoard | late 1st century BC to early 1st century AD | Wickham Market, Suffolk 52°09′00″N1°22′01″E / 52.150°N 1.367°E | 2008 | Ipswich Museum | 840 gold staters [56] [57] | |
Winchester Hoard | 1st century BC | near Winchester, Hampshire 51°03′47″N1°18′29″W / 51.063°N 1.308°W | 2000 | British Museum, London | 4 gold brooches 1 gold chain 1 gold bracelet (complete) 2 gold bracelet halves 2 gold torcs [58] | |
Walkington Hoard | 1st century BC | Walkington, East Yorkshire 53°49′14″N0°29′17″W / 53.820636°N 0.487977°W | 2005 | Yorkshire Museum, York | a collection of gold staters of the Corieltauvi. Various types of coin. Discovered in batches but regarded as associated. [59] [60] | |
The Portable Antiquities Scheme (PAS) is a voluntary programme run by the United Kingdom government to record the increasing numbers of small finds of archaeological interest found by members of the public. The scheme began in 1997 and now covers most of England and Wales.
The Hoxne Hoard is the largest hoard of late Roman silver and gold discovered in Britain, and the largest collection of gold and silver coins of the fourth and fifth centuries found anywhere within the former Roman Empire. It was found by Eric Lawes, a metal detectorist in the village of Hoxne in Suffolk, England in 1992. The hoard consists of 14,865 Roman gold, silver, and bronze coins and approximately 200 items of silver tableware and gold jewellery. The objects are now in the British Museum in London, where the most important pieces and a selection of the rest are on permanent display. In 1993, the Treasure Valuation Committee valued the hoard at £1.75 million.
The Vale of York Hoard, also known as the Harrogate Hoard and the Vale of York Viking Hoard, is a 10th-century Viking hoard of 617 silver coins and 65 other items. It was found undisturbed in 2007 near the town of Harrogate in North Yorkshire, England. The hoard was the largest Viking one discovered in Britain since 1840, when the Cuerdale hoard was found in Lancashire, though the Anglo-Saxon Staffordshire Hoard, found in 2009, is larger.
The Staffordshire Hoard is the largest hoard of Anglo-Saxon gold and silver metalwork yet found. It consists of almost 4,600 items and metal fragments, amounting to a total of 5.1 kg (11 lb) of gold, 1.4 kg (3 lb) of silver and some 3,500 pieces of garnet cloisonné jewellery. It is described by the historian Cat Jarman as "possibly the finest collection of early medieval artefacts ever discovered".
The Milton Keynes Hoard is a hoard of Bronze Age gold found in September 2000 in a field at Monkston Park in Milton Keynes, England. The hoard consisted of two torcs, three bracelets, and a fragment of bronze rod contained in a pottery vessel. The inclusion of pottery in the find enabled it to be dated to around 1150–800 BC.
The Treasure Valuation Committee (TVC) is an advisory non-departmental public body of the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) based in London, which offers expert advice to the government on items of declared treasure in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland that museums there may wish to acquire from the Crown.
The Frome Hoard is a hoard of 52,503 Roman coins found in April 2010 by metal detectorist Dave Crisp near Frome in Somerset, England. The coins were contained in a ceramic pot 45 cm (18 in) in diameter, and date from AD 253 to 305. Most of the coins are made from debased silver or bronze. The hoard is one of the largest ever found in Britain, and is also important as it contains the largest group ever found of coins issued during the reign of Carausius, who ruled Britain independently from 286 to 293 and was the first Roman Emperor to strike coins in Britain. The Museum of Somerset in Taunton, using a grant from the National Heritage Memorial Fund (NHMF), acquired the hoard in 2011 for a value of £320,250.
The Shrewsbury Hoard is a hoard of 9,315 bronze Roman coins discovered by a metal detectorist in a field near Shrewsbury, Shropshire in August 2009. The coins were found in a large pottery storage jar that was buried in about AD 335.
The Wickham Market Hoard is a hoard of 840 Iron Age gold staters found in a field at Dallinghoo near Wickham Market, Suffolk, England in March 2008 by car mechanic, Michael Dark using a metal detector. After excavation of the site, a total of 825 coins were found, and by the time the hoard was declared treasure trove, 840 coins had been discovered. The coins date from 40 BC to 15 AD.
The Winchester Hoard is a hoard of Iron Age gold found in a field in the Winchester area of Hampshire, England, in 2000, by a retired florist and amateur metal detectorist, Kevan Halls. It was declared treasure and valued at £350,000—the highest reward granted under the Treasure Act 1996 at that time.
The Bredon Hill Hoard is a hoard of 3,784 debased silver Roman coins discovered in June 2011 by two metal detectorists on Bredon Hill in Worcestershire, approximately 400 metres north of Kemerton Camp, an Iron Age hill fort. The coins were found in a clay pot that had been buried around the middle of the 4th century in a Roman villa, identified by the subsequent archaeological excavation. The coins include the reigns of sixteen different emperors during the mid to late 3rd century, and are the largest hoard of Roman coins to have been discovered in Worcestershire to date.
The Silverdale Hoard is a collection of over 200 pieces of silver jewellery and coins discovered near Silverdale, Lancashire, England, in September 2011. The items were deposited together in and under a lead container buried about 16 inches (41 cm) underground which was found in a field by a metal detectorist. It is believed to date to around AD 900, a time of intense conflict between the Anglo-Saxons and the Danish settlers of northern England. The hoard is one of the largest Viking hoards ever discovered in the UK. It has been purchased by Lancashire Museums Service and has been displayed at Lancaster City Museum and the Museum of Lancashire in Preston. It is particularly significant for its inclusion of a coin stamped with the name of a previously unknown Viking ruler.
The Seaton Down Hoard is a hoard of 22,888 Roman coins found in November 2013 by metal detectorist Laurence Egerton near Seaton Down in Devon, England.
Roger Farrant Bland, is a British curator and numismatist. At the British Museum, he served as Keeper of the Department of Portable Antiquities and Treasure from 2005 to 2013, Keeper of the Department of Prehistory and Europe from 2012 to 2013, and Keeper of the Department of Britain, Europe and Prehistory from 2013 to 2015. Since 2015, he has been a visiting professor at the University of Leicester and a Senior Fellow of the McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research, University of Cambridge.
A number of Roman hoards have been discovered near Pewsey and Wilcot in the Vale of Pewsey, Wiltshire, England.