Two chariots, 84 barrows, spears, shields and two cows
In recent years spectacular Iron Age burials from eastern Yorkshire have been in the news, including two with ponies and a cart. Ahead of full analysis, Paula Ware and Mark Stephens introduce the wider excavations at Burnby Lane and The Mile
Pocklington, a small market town east of York at the foot of the Yorkshire Wolds, is growing. In the two decades before the last census in 2011 its population increased by 20%, and it has risen substantially since. People need housing. With new developments around the town on all sides, archaeologists have been out in the field ahead of construction, and the community has witnessed a succession of dramatic discoveries (see Britain in archaeology Jul/Aug 2015/143, Jul/Aug 2017/155 and Mar/Apr 2020/171).
Among these have been an Iron Age cemetery to the south-east and further significant Iron Age burials to the north-east. Those excavations were conducted between 2014 and 2018 by
mapArchaeological Practice, funded by Barratt-David Wilson at Burnby Lane and by Persimmon Homes at The Mile, respectively. As well as the Iron Age burials, at Burnby Lane there were further Neolithic, Bronze Age, Romano-British and Anglo-Saxon remains, and at The Mile we have recorded part of the most extensive
Right: Sites of recent major excavations at Pocklington, all conducted ahead of new housing
Anglo-Saxon settlement to be excavated in northern England this century. Meanwhile at Yapham Road on the north-west ourselves and Archaeological Services Durham University have separately excavated extensive evidence for Iron Age and Roman settlement.
Derek Riley, a noted aerial photographer, recorded characteristic Iron Age square barrow ditches around Pocklington in 1973, later mapped by the Royal Commission on Historical Monuments (England). Further barrows appeared in the summer drought in 2018 (feature Nov/Dec 2018/163), but though geophysical surveys by Archaeological Services wyas revealed the potential of Burnby Lane and The Mile, no cropmarks were known for either site and the scale of burial became apparent only during excavation. Pocklington is now one of a handful of large Iron Age cemetery excavations in Yorkshire, the first of which started in 1815 and the most recent had finished more than 30 years ago. This is a unique opportunity in modern times to engage with a significant local community from the last three centuries before the Roman conquest (see plans overleaf).
Coffins and coral
The Burnby Lane site covers a total area of 4.4ha – large enough to reveal the story of an ancient cemetery as it grew and spread on the edge of the valley, where it would have been an impressive sight. The oldest substantial works were Bronze Age: an enclosure ditch to the north, which had been picked up in the geophysics survey, and three small enclosures we interpret as the ditches around now flattened round barrows, though it’s not possible to say whether the two burials within these were related or from a later era.
These enclosures were all larger than ditches around Iron Age barrows, of which we have excavated 84, most of them square or rectangular (there are 87 altogether, including the Bronze Age barrows). By comparing the site with other large eastern Yorkshire cemetery excavations at Garton/Wetwang Slack, Burton Fleming and Rudston, and taking into account the size and form of the Pocklington barrows and stratigraphic relationships between them, we can group them into three types, as successive burials were fitted in among the older ones. Overall, barrows became smaller over time.
Group 1 barrows covered the largest areas, but had no central grave: this absence is likely to be a function of survival, with graves that were shallow or within the mounds ploughed away. There are nine of these, to the west of the site. There are 48 Group 2 barrows, which have smaller squarish ditches around graves that are shallow to deep. At this time a second focus developed to the north-east, the other side of a trackway or boundary that appears to have defined areas for burial, where several barrows were built across each other. Group 3 barrows are small, often with curved enclosures with deep graves (over 60cm). There are 27 of these, exceptionally including the most spectacular burial on the site.
Under the barrows 72 primary burials survived, of which, where this could be seen, 53 were aligned north-south, with the head to the north and mostly facing east. A few (14) lay with the head to the south, mostly facing west – in both cases showing a preference for lying on the right side. Most of these primary burials were in a crouched posture, but some were flexed and a small number tightly contracted. This pattern accords with that of the major cemeteries in the East Riding excavated in the last century.
There were 11 secondary burials, which we assume to be of Iron Age date because of their north-south alignments, mostly dug into barrows in the eastern group. These bodies were also buried in a crouched posture and facing east. A further 41 “flat” or unenclosed burials show similar traits.
The skeletons were generally poorly preserved and fragmented, but they are revealing a wealth of information. The vast majority of the individuals were adults, with only a small number of infants, children and adolescents. Alongside fractures to long bones, ribs, vertebrae and clavicles, joint diseases, haematological disorders and metabolic diseases such as cribra orbitalia, there are examples of more remarkable pathology. p The most extreme case is t the prone burial (laid face down) of an 1 18–25-year-old man who had multiple s sharp-force injuries to his head, neck, a arms, spine, pelvis and left leg.
We recorded coffin-like structures i in several burials, echoing findings in c cemeteries excavated by Ian Stead at R Rudston (Argham Lane and Makeshift) a and John Dent at Wetwang Slack.
N No wood survived, but the structures co could be distinguished by shear-lines an and traces of darker soil in the grave fi fill. They were generally rectangular, an and evidence suggests that they were co constructed from edge-set boards, w with little sign of lids and none of bases. P Perhaps they were self-supporting sh shuttered boxes, and with an absence of metal fittings or stakes, probably carpentered joints were used to hold them together. Such structures were more likely to occur with central (primary) barrow burials (12) than
unenclosed “flat” graves (5), and there were none in secondary graves.
Objects had been placed in about a fifth of the burials, predominantly the central barrow burials, including copper-alloy and iron brooches and bracelets, and bone objects and beads. One burial contained a complete pottery vessel, inside which was a spearhead. In another (Barrow 34) a young man was buried with an iron sword and a set of iron spearheads, and another had a shield (Barrow 37). We found part of the skeleton of a juvenile pig in the central grave of one of the enclosed burials, the only example of a “food offering” in the Iron Age cemetery. Just beyond the northeastern margin of the cemetery we found the skeletons of two complete cows, one a young adult, the other senile. Both had been buried in deep, rectangular graves on similar alignments to the human Iron Age burials.
Sophia Adams has examined the bow brooches, the majority of which are iron, the rest in copper alloy. They range in date from the third to the first century bc. Most are types familiar in other eastern Yorkshire Iron Age cemeteries, but there are two rarer forms, both in copper-alloy – a brooch with a wide h- shaped frame decorated with a wavy piece of coral, and another example decorated with two coral beads. We recovered five bracelets from central barrow graves of adult women, and the mature woman with the h- shaped bow brooch also had a copper-alloy bracelet on each wrist, one with coral inlay.
Two chariots
We found the first of two Pocklington chariots at Burnby Lane – as luck would have it, in the centre of the final square barrow to be excavated (Barrow 85). The ditches were relatively insubstantial, but they enclosed a large grave, 3.6m by 2.6m across. It had been truncated by later cultivation, but fortunately enough escaped damage for us to identify the remains of two ponies, two wheels – separated from the cart and laid flat – and a man. One of the ponies has been radiocarbon dated to around 250bc.
The iron tyre and the lower nave band around the hub of the eastern wheel, and the lower nave band of the western wheel, had survived in situ. The rim, the nave and all 12 spokes of the more complete wheel were represented by soil marks, and these overlay an iron horse bit. Another soil mark represented the cart pole, extending 2.6m northwards from the wheels between the skeletons of two mature ponies that had been laid facing each other with their heads to the north. The eastern pony was definitely male, but it was not possible to sex the western one as the crucial part of the mandible was missing. Unfortunately, the fractured condition of the crania makes it impossible to tell if the ponies had been poleaxed. The body of a mature man had been laid over the southern part of the cart pole, framed between the hind legs of the ponies. The skeleton had been badly truncated.
The second chariot was at The Mile housing site, a little over a kilometre to the north. Here the ditches of a square barrow enclosed an area some 6.5m across and a central grave measuring 4.4m north–south, 2.4m east–west and over 1m deep – a large pit for an exceptional burial.
The chariot was better preserved in the deeper grave than the one at Burnby
Lane. It was largely complete, apart from the yoke, and appeared to be still assembled, with upright wheels attached via naves to an axle some 2m long. The axle had been a substantial piece of timber, around 14cm thick and made of ash, to judge from remains preserved in metal corrosion inside the nave bands.
The two naves were around 30cm long and appeared to be roughly flush with the axle. Of the four copper-alloy nave hoops, three were similar in form, with medial raised bands that no doubt provided both decoration and strength. The other hoop was a much narrower, plain ring. The lynch pins were tapering iron rods linked to iron rings at their top ends, which had ornamental rounded knobs, or knops, with smaller knops at the lower ends.
From the distance between the outside of the iron tyres as a guide, the chariot had a gauge of about 1.58m. The tyres themselves were 90cm in diameter, 4mm wide and 1.5mm thick. Soil stains revealed six spokes in part of one of the wheels, their positions showing that like those on the Burnby Lane cart it originally had 12. The wooden rim was shown by a 3cm wide band of stained soil on the inside of the tyre.
A dark soil stain indicated the chariot body, which was relatively narrow and shallow with a tapered front end. Internally it was 1.45m long and 65cm wide at the south-east end, dropping to 25cm at the north-west (front). It rested on top of the axle, but there was no indication of how these parts had been joined together. The remains of the pole consisted of an intermittent soil stain that dipped down from the front of the chariot towards the rear and was at least 1.35m long.
We recovered three out-of-position terret rings from the disturbed horizon at the top of the grave. One was a plain iron ring, but the other two, of copper alloy, both had decorative bosses containing what is probably coral.
The ponies, like the chariot, were buried upright, carefully posed as if they were galloping or trotting at the front end. Unfortunately, their heads had been truncated by ploughing, making it impossible to sex the animals. Fused bones make it clear that they were not juveniles.
Decorated shield
The man for whom all this had been done was a mature adult (over 46 years of age). His skeleton lay crouched within the chariot box, on the right side with the head to the north, facing west. His legs were tightly drawn up against the abdomen and chest, and his hands were placed together in front of the face. He was 174cm tall (5 feet 8.5 inches), taller than the mean height (168cm) for Iron Age males nationally. His bones revealed trauma, with a fractured rib that was healing at the time of death, and muscle damage to the left thigh. His relatively advanced age was shown by osteoporosis; degenerative joint changes to the pelvis, left clavicle, shoulders, wrists, knees and toes; and long-standing poor oral health resulting in some tooth loss, diseased gums and a dental abscess. A large quantity of bone from the heads and forelimbs of at least five piglets lay over and around this inhumation.
After we lifted the skeleton, we found a copper-alloy bow brooch pin-side upwards, indicating that it had been displayed on the right side of the body. It had an iron pin and a coral or paste glass roundel on the dorsal side, the design suggesting a dragonfly. The body had been placed directly on top of a wood and copper-alloy composite shield, laid face downwards – as if in a defensive position on his right arm. It had a central spine riveted to an ovoid boss, which overlapped two crescentshaped plates with exquisite repoussé decoration, together making a reinforced decorative oval in the shield’s centre. Around this was a scalloped frieze consisting of individual cut-outs of copper-alloy strip. The bottom and left sides were marked by a series of copper-alloy binding strips, indicating that the complete shield had been rectangular.
Some 90m north-west of the chariot burial at The Mile we excavated a circular barrow ditch surrounding a distinctive central grave. It held the skeleton of a young adult male (18–25 years) who had been laid north-south in a crouched posture on his left side, facing east. He had been buried with a dismantled rectangular shield with a
copper-alloy spine and boss, five iron spearheads and three bone points. This man had ante-mortem fractures to both his nasal bones, and evidence for healed blunt-force trauma to the frontal bone; the injuries could have been caused at the same time. He was 168cm tall (5 feet 6 inches), typical for Iron Age males.
Just a metre beyond the barrow ditch was another grave, Satellite Burial 274, which contained the crouched skeleton of a young adult woman in a north-south posture, with her legs bent and her torso partly supine, and her hands placed in front of the face. She was 155.5cm tall (5 feet 1 inch), below the average (162cm) for Iron Age women.
The examples at Burnby Lane and The Mile are the ninth and 11th chariot burials to be excavated in eastern Yorkshire under modern conditions. By complete coincidence, between the discovery of these two burials we found the tenth at another site to the south, north of the River Humber: the precise location cannot yet be revealed, and we are referring to it as Site x. Here, in 2016–17, mapArchaeological Practice excavated ten Iron Age square barrows that seem to be of the Group 1 type, with very good bone preservation and all but one with a central grave. One contained the remains of a man laid east-west and six goats and a possible dog. Barrow 720 had a large central grave with all the main parts of a dismantled chariot visible as distinct soil stains, and a human skeleton on the superstructure (both skeletons are radiocarbon dated to 330–200bc).
French connection?
Other modern excavations have uncovered the only ukchariot burials from outside the eastern Yorkshire region: at Newbridge, near Edinburgh (News Apr 2001/58), Ferry Fryston in West Yorkshire (feature May 2004/76) and a detectorist’s discovery in Pembrokeshire (Britain in archaeology May/Jun 2019/166). The closest parallel to The Mile chariot (apart from scantily recorded examples at Cawthorn Camps and Pexton Moor, where chariot remains were found with upright wheels), is from Ferry Fryston: both had distinctive pointed ends to the front of the chariot body, and both carts were buried substantially intact. The Burnby Lane chariot is more like those from the Wetwang/Garton area.
The unusual link between the Burnby Lane and Mile chariots is that both were buried with ponies – perhaps this was a local interpretation of the regional tradition. To find another such burial with standing horses, however, we have to go to continental Europe, and even there they are rare.
What particularly makes these excavations of international significance, is their scale and the number of burials that are now available for study. Peter Halkon, a post-excavation consultant for the Pocklington cemeteries, has described them as “undoubtedly one of the most significant recent finds in Britain”. They are representative of what Gordon Childe in the 1940s called the Arras Culture, a distinct regional tradition that remains far from understood. On the basis of the burials, Childe thought the people were initially migrants from northern France, and Classical writers later recorded the name of a French tribe as the Parisii, and the eastern Yorkshire tribe as the Parisi. Yet it has proved impossible to find direct evidence of any crossChannel connections. Scientific study of remains from Pocklington, including radiocarbon dating, adnaand isotope analyses of human bone, will help move this fascinating debate forward.
Thanks are due to Malin Holst, Anwen Caffell and Paola Ponce (York Osteoarchaeology Ltd) for analysis of the human skeletons, and Maggs Felter ( yat) for advice on the treatment, lifting and conservation of objects from the chariot burials. Paula Ware is managing director of mapArchaeological
Practice. Chariots, Swords & Spears: Iron Age Burials at the Foot of the East Yorkshire Wolds, ed Mark Stephens, is due to be published in 2020