Among the items on display at Chariots, Treasure and Power: Secrets of the Melsonby Hoard is ‘the block’ – a 150kg tangle of objects that cannot be dismantled without causing damage. Photograph: Gary Calton/The Guardian
View image in fullscreenAmong the items on display at Chariots, Treasure and Power: Secrets of the Melsonby Hoard is ‘the block’ – a 150kg tangle of objects that cannot be dismantled without causing damage. Photograph: Gary Calton/The Guardian
Letters: Iron age objects in the Melsonby hoard may offer a lesson for today
Pete Clarkson wonders if attempts were made 2,000 years ago to bury the hatchet – and the cauldron
Your fascinating article concerning the discovery of many buried artefacts near my home says that the big question is why the objects were buried (‘Magical’ objects from iron age hoard found in UK go on display, 14 May).
Prof Tom Moore gave a very interesting account last October in his illustrated talk to the Richmond Civic Society, and pointed out that many items were costly weapons of war such as swords bent into a zigzag shapes or things that could be used in battle such as wooden chariots, spears and arrows, which could be destroyed by burning. A cauldron could be used to pour boiling oil on to an attacker, but no longer if it was holed and buried.
I am not an archaeologist, but we’ve all heard the expressions “bury the hatchet” and “turn swords into ploughshares”, and so I wonder if this was a tangible expression of an early arms-reduction treaty between two formerly warring tribes who had decided to make peace at last and needed an irreversible demonstration of their bona fides. Perhaps a lesson from the past for the world today?
Pete Clarkson
Manfield, North Yorkshire
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