Early analysis of the hoard, released on Tuesday, suggests a lot of the items had been purposefully burnt or broken before being buried as a show of power and wealth. He said the hoard showed there was more wealth in the north of England at the time than previously thought. "Whoever originally owned the material in this hoard was probably a part of a network of elites across Britain, into Europe and even the Roman world," he said. "The destruction of so many high-status objects, evident in this hoard, is also of a scale rarely seen in Iron Age Britain and demonstrates that the elites of northern Britain were just as powerful as their southern counterparts." It is thought the objects may have been burnt on a funerary pyre before being buried, though no human remains were found.

Source: The Times March 25, 2025 11:05 UTC