A Bronze Age hoard discovered at Stoke Doyle in September 2020 is now on display at the Oundle Museum.
The Museum is open every Saturday and Sunday 1-4pm until the last weekend in October.
The hoard was found by a metal detectorist who reported it to the Finds Liaison Officer (FLO) administering the Portable Antiquities Scheme. As well as a report prepared by the local FLOs for the British Museum, the hoard has subsequently been subject to detailed non-invasive analysis at Leicester University. The Oundle Museum has been able to acquire the collection thanks to funding support from both the Nene Valley Archaeological Trust and the Oundle Feoffees.
Bronze Age hoards are not uncommon but the motive for their deposit can be ambiguous; archaeologists have often interpreted their deposition as an offering to the gods. It seems more likely that the Stoke Doyle objects represent a hidden, and forgotten, store of wealth intended for exchange or re-smelting. Professional analysis of the find has enabled an unusual level of scrutiny which will be valuable for future research.
Image credit - British Museum
The hoard dates to 1000-800BC and comprises over 40 pieces:
• Large spear, in four fragments
• Three socketed axe-heads (Ewart Park Phase)
• Two sword blade fragments
• One large ring
• 3 large bun ingots
• 25 Medium ingot fragments
• 4 small ingot fragments
Over 90% of the total weight of 20kg is accounted for by the ingots, characterising the find as a founder’s hoard.
Analysis by Leicester University
A study of the objects undertaken as part of the “New History of Bronze Project” at Leicester University used microscopy, spectrometry and X-ray analysis to better understand their production, use and demise.
The tools and weapons that were part of the hoard from Oundle are characterised by highly skilled metalworking. Items had been used and were not repaired before being buried. The pattern of fragmentation of ingots and the spear suggests that this was done by craftsmen with experience of working with copper and its alloys.
The spearhead has a hollow, leaf-shaped blade with fillets running from the socket and alongside the midrib until the tip. It has been decorated with four relief lines (two per side). The pattern of destruction indicates it was deliberate. The object is bent 160°, while wear bending is usually not more than 30°. It can be deduced that the spearhead has been fragmented by heating up to around 500-600 °C and struck with another object.
The ingots all belong to the plano-convex type. Their porous surfaces and irregular shapes suggest that the ingots were cast in the open air, in appropriately prepared bowl-shaped depressions dug into the ground. The similar weight and shape of two complete ingots suggest they could have been made as part of the same process.
Selected ingots were almost entirely of copper; pure copper is more difficult to divide than amalgams with lead or tin. The fragments of ingots could not be re-assembled, indicating that they were divided and removed from the assemblage periodically over time, rather than being fragmented all at once before the deposition.
Bringing the Objects to Life in 3D
Objects from the hoard were scanned at Leicester University to allow creation of both solid and virtual 3D models.
Oundle Museum has a 3D printed model of the axe-head which can be handled.
The links below are to online models of four objects which have been processed in this way, allowing anyone to rotate and scrutinise detailed images:
The models are displayed on the Sketchfab website. They are large files which may take time to load - but they do not download to your own device.
Founders’ Hoards of the late Bronze Age
Hoards comprising raw material for metalwork and scraps of objects to be recycled have often been termed “founders’ hoards”. However the reason for such deposits and their increased prevalence in the late Bronze Age are not clear. The fact that in some societies the smith is seen as a possessor of supernatural powers does not rule out a ritual element.
The largest known hoard of Bronze age artefacts in Britain was discovered at Isleham in Cambridgeshire. In this instance the 6,500 objects appeared to have been placed in a large ceramic pot.
The founders’ hoard above was found in a Norwich garden in 2005. It comprised 145 pieces of metalwork.
The closest match to the Stoke Doyle hoard is said to be that found at Marston St Lawrence, Northamptonshire, in the early 1890s.
Comments