- Museum number
- 1877,1016.10
- Description
-
Copper alloy and iron double-jointed or 'three-link' horse-bit, made up of five elements: two rein-rings, and three links which form the mouth-piece. Each rein-ring is attached to a side-link, and the two side-links are joined by a centre-link. The rein-rings are of iron, encased in copper alloy. Around the outide, a central ridge expands into lobe near where it meets the side-link. At either side of side-links are stops formed by globular-headed copper alloy pins. The side-links are of solid copper alloy, and are firmly fixed at angle of 145 degrees to rings, i.e. the bits cannot be straightened. The central link is also of solid copper alloy. Each side link ends in a loop which connects to the double-looped centre-link. The loops are well worn where the links have rubbed together.
- Production date
- 300 BC - 100 BC (circa)
- Dimensions
-
Diameter: 64 - 71 millimetres (rings)
-
Diameter: 9 - 12 millimetres (interior of loop where links join)
-
Length: 49 millimetres (central link)
-
Length: 55 millimetres (side-links)
-
Length: 236 millimetres (total present, unstraightened)
-
Weight: 286 grammes
- Curator's comments
- This object forms part of the assemblage from an Iron Age chariot burial discovered in 1875. Other burials excavated around the same time were given the names of the ‘Queen’s’, ‘King’s’, and ‘Charioteer’s’ barrows. According to the same pattern, Cyril Fox later named this burial the ‘Lady’s barrow’ (Fox 1958, 6).
The burial was uncovered during work in a chalk pit, and recorded by Canon William Greenwell, who also rescued many of the finds. Greenwell himself wrote two accounts of the find (Greenwell 1877, 454-7; Greenwell 1906, 279, 284-6) and it has also been summarised by Ian Stead (Stead 1969, 6, 90-91; Stead 1979, 20-22).
The barrow had been 4.3m in diameter and around 45cm high. It covered a circular grave about 3.6m in diameter and 1m deep. There was an extended inhumation in the centre of the grave barrow, believed to be that of a woman buried lying on her left side, accompanied by the skulls and left fore-limbs of two pigs (Greenwell 1877, 454-7). It is unclear how much of the layout of the burial was observed by Greenwell, and how much was reported to him by the workmen who discovered the grave. For example, there is confusion over whether her head lay at the west end of the grave (as reported by Greenwell in 1877, 454) or the north (as reported by Greenwell in 1906, 284). No map or plan of the grave exists.
Nevertheless, Greenwell reports that:
“Underneath the head of the woman was a mirror, behind the back were the iron tires [sic] of two wheels laid partly the one over the other, and within each tire were two bronze hoops, those of the corresponding naves, and a circular piece of iron. In front of the face were two [bridle] bits laid slightly above the bottom of the grave.” (Greenwell 1906, 284-5)
Greenwell also describes a small bronze cap, about an inch in diameter, which he interpreted as possibly a fitting from the shank of a whip. From the spoil already shovelled out by the workmen, Greenwell himself recovered a terret.
Most of the objects from the Lady’s Barrow were collected by Greenwell, and later purchased by Augustus Wollaston Franks, who presented them to the British Museum. The objects in the British Museum’s collections are:
- Two fragmentary iron tyres: 1877,1016.1-2
- Four nave hoops (a pair from each wheel): 1877,1016.3-6
- Iron mirror: 1877,1016.8
- Terret: 1877,1016.9
- Bridle bits: 1877,1016.10-11
Greenwell reported that the small bronze cap was lost by the workmen. The human and animal remains do not appear to have entered the collections of the British Museum, and have most likely not survived.
(NB: 1877,1016.7, noted in the register as a small iron knife, was included in this run of BM registration numbers by mistake. It does not form part of the Lady’s Barrow assemblage.)
Bibliography:
Fox, C. 1958. Pattern and Purpose: A Survey of Early Celtic Art in Britain. Cardiff: National Museum of Wales.
Greenwell, W. 1877. British Barrows: A record of the examination of sepulchral mounds in various parts of England. Oxford: Clarendon Press. (see Note, p.454-7)
Greenwell, W. 1906. ‘Early Iron Age Burials in Yorkshire’. Archaeologia 60, pp. 251-324. (see p.279, 284-6)
Stead, I. M. 1965. The La Tène Cultures of Eastern Yorkshire. York: The Yorkshire Philosophical Society. (see especially p.90-91)
Stead, I. M. 1979. The Arras Culture. York: The Yorkshire Philosophical Society. (see especially p.20, 22)
- Location
- On display (G50/dc12)
- Department
- Britain, Europe and Prehistory
- Registration number
- 1877,1016.10
