4 d. ago Boudica's horn of horror: Iron Age treasures unearthed in Norfolk include a battle trumpet to inspire warriors during combat

A remarkable collection of Iron Age objects dating back 2,000 years has been discovered in West Norfolk - and it includes a battle trumpet that could have been used by Boudica's tribes. 

Events

4 d. ago ‘Extraordinary’ iron age war trumpet find in Britain may have Boudicca links

Bronze instrument or carnyx dug up in Norfolk in area inhabited by Celtic tribe led by warrior who fought RomansAn “extraordinary” iron age war trumpet that may have links to the Celtic tribe led by Boudicca in the period they were battling the invading Roman army has been discovered by archaeologists in Norfolk.The bronze trumpet or carnyx is only the third ever found in Britain, and the most complete example discovered anywhere in the world. Fashioned in the shape of a snarling wild animal, the object would have been mounted on a long mouthpiece high above the heads of warriors, allowing it to be sounded to intimidate the enemy in battle. Continue reading...

Politics

4 d. ago ‘Remarkable’ hoard of Iron Age objects unearthed during routine excavation

A near-complete battle trumpet is one of only three known from Britain and is one of the most complete found in Europe

Politics

8 d. ago From iron age tunnels to YouTube: Time Team’s ‘extraordinary’ digital renaissance

Three decades after its modest beginnings on Channel 4, the TV juggernaut now has its own channel and global subscribersThirty-two years ago, a small group of archaeologists gathered for a weekend in Somerset to make a TV programme about a field in Athelney, the site where once, 1,200 years ago, King Alfred the Great rallied resistance to the invading Viking army.There weren’t many concessions to showbiz glitz. Instead, a group of blokes with unruly hair and a couple of women walked across a field, talked things over in the pub and, at one point, gathered around a dot matrix printer to watch it slowly disgorging some results. The most exciting artefact they found was a lump of iron slag. No soil was overturned. Continue reading...

Politics

2 w. ago ‘An unsung alternative to the Cotswolds‘: exploring Leicestershire’s Welland valley

This hidden gem has country inns, canalside walks, a stunning viaduct, the historic town of Market Harborough – and not a tour bus in sightIt was a chilly Sunday in November 2000 when the gods chose to smile on Ken Wallace. The retired teacher was sweeping his metal detector across a hillside in Leicestershire’s Welland valley when a series of beeps brought him up short. Digging down, he found a cache of buried coins almost two millennia old. He had chanced upon one of the UK’s most important iron age hoards, totalling about 5,000 silver and gold coins.More than 25 years on, I’m staring at Ken’s find at the civic museum in the nearby town of Market Harborough. The now gleaming coins are decorated with wreaths and horses. They’re about the size of 5p pieces, but speak of a wild-eyed age of tribal lands and windswept hill forts. Continue reading...

Politics

3 w. ago Bog Queen by Anna North review – a tale that could dig deeper

This story of a teenage druid whose body is discovered in a peat bog has memorable moments – but its evocation of time and place is unconvincingAnna North’s fourth book, Bog Queen, is a stranded or braided novel. First “a colony of moss” speaks – or rather, does not speak, but “if such a colony could tell the story of its life”, here’s some of what it might say. Then we have Agnes in 2018, American, tall, awkward, expert in forensic pathology and uncertain about everything else, including much of life in England. And then, in the first person, there is an iron age teenage girl, the druid of her village, riding towards a Roman town with her brother Aesu and friend Crab: “I had been druid for two seasons at that point and everyone said I was doing very well.”Agnes has a post-doctoral fellowship in Manchester, from which she is summoned to the discovery of a body in a peat bog in Ludlow. The story shadows that of Lindow Man, found by peat harvesters in a bog near Wi...

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