Late Bronze Age Hoard
at Throston, Hartlepool
Reports
intro | gallery | reports |
further information
In September 2002 a local metal detectorist,
Charles Pounder, discovered a hoard near Hartlepool,
immediately ahead of topsoil stripping of the
land for development. Mr Pounder immediately
notified Tees Archaeology of the find and the
immediate area around the hoard was excavated
and a Watching Brief maintained as topsoil stripping
continued. No further finds were made and this
seems to have been a one off deposit, particularly
as archaeological evaluation of the area had
failed to reveal any significant archaeological
features.
Topography
The findspot occupies a false crest on the north-western
slopes overlooking Hartlepool Bay. It lies within
c100m of a small, deeply indented stream, however
the most marked aspect of its positioning is
without doubt the view down to and across the
bay.
The Sequence of Deposition
The hoard had been placed in a small hole, the
initial deposit being a small quantity of ash
and fragmentary burnt bone. The degree of fragmentation
of the latter makes identification virtually
impossible. Fortunately there was sufficient
charcoal in this deposit to allow radiocarbon
dating and the results of this are awaited. There
was no evidence of burning ‘in situ’ and
this material seems to have been gathered from
a ire elsewhere and placed in the hole.
The next deposit was the bronze spearhead, the
socket had broken away from the spearhead prior
to its recovery. Accompanying the spearhead were
a number of long bronze pins, fragments of a
bronze vessel of c50mm diameter and a substantial
subcircular ring with a loop projecting from
one edge, this is almost identical to one found
in the Parc-y-meirch hoard (Megaw and Simpson
1979, fig 6.43, No 7). The latter seemed to be
linked to a bronze ring by a piece of wire which
ran through a central hole.
A very crude and undecorated pot was placed
on top of the spearhead and this contained six
wire rings of which only one was intact; one
tin ally bead; one tin circular spoked rouelle;
four amber beads and two jet beads. On of the
amber beads retained a piece of thread over a
centimeter long and a number of other beads also
possess fragments of thread.
All of the finds described so far were recovered
by laboratory excavation of the finds undertaken
by Dr Jennifer Jones at the University of Durham.
The remaining material, described below had been
excavated separately by the metal detectorist
but is presumed to have come from the pot.
In addition to sherds of the pot this included
a rectangular jet spacer with two holes, four
complete bronze rings of 54, 48, 41 and 23mm
diameters, 32 fragments of bronze rings, two
bronze nails, two flat strips of bronze, and
over twenty fragments of vessel bronze representing
at least two containers. In addition there were
three jet beads and a large ‘D’ sectioned
jet ring of 109mm diameter. The latter was substantially
complete but a number of splinters had broken
away from the surface and some of these have
been recovered. The finder reported that this
was placed on the very top of the pot.
The material is in very good condition and is
being conserved at Durham University.
intro | gallery | reports | further
information |
