bracket(?);
staple(?)
- Museum number
- 1958,0704.67
- Description
-
Iron fragment. Possibly from bracket or staple.
- Production date
- 30 BC - 15 BC (buried, circa)
- Dimensions
-
Length: 18 millimetres
- Curator's comments
- This object comes from a Welwyn-type high-status cremation grave at Hertford Heath (c.30-15 BC). The grave was first discovered in 1956, and was excavated in 1957. The grave contained an amphora, ten pottery vessels, an imported glass bowl, iron shears, an iron knife, and a range of bronze and iron fragments. The latter appear to include the iron bindings and copper alloy studs and decorative sheet fittings from a large wooden vessel such as a stave-built bucket (what is now thought to be the lid was originally interpreted as a ‘wheel complex’).
The burial was located on a prominent hilltop, surrounded by late Iron Age and early Roman satellite burials, ranging in date from the later 1st century BC to at least AD 100. Between 1954 and 1957 'urns' were recovered from five different places north and south of the main grave. Clearly the high-status burial here on the hilltop remained a ritual focus for at least a century, well into the Roman period.
References:
Holmes, J, & Frend, W H C. 1955-7. A Belgic chieftain's grave on Hertford Heath; Trans East Herts Archaeol Soc 1955-7, 1-18.
Hüssen, Claus-Michael. 1983. A rich Late la Tène burial at Hertford Heath, Hertfordshire.
Stead, I M. 1967. A La Tene III burial at Welwyn Garden City; Archaeologia 101, 1-62. (Appendix, p52: list of all grave goods)
- Location
- Not on display
- Department
- Britain, Europe and Prehistory
- Registration number
- 1958,0704.67