LEICESTERSHIRE, ENGLAND—An Iron Age ceremonial site in the England's East Midlands has yielded 11 cauldrons, a sword, dress pins, a brooch, and a cast copper-alloy horn-cap, which may have been part of a ceremonial staff, according to a report in the Leicester Mercury. John Thomas of the University of Leicester Archaeological Services said that in the fifth and fourth centuries B.C., the site is thought to have been a small, open settlement, but by the third century B.C., the evidence suggests later generations enclosed the individual roundhouses. Most of the cauldrons were found in a large, circular enclosure ditch surrounding a building, while others were spread across the settlement. The vessels may have been used during major feasts and large gatherings before they were buried. The excavators lifted the cauldrons from the ground in soil blocks wrapped in strips of plaster, and then examined them with computer tomography equipment before carefully removing the surrounding dirt. Thomas noted the cauldrons came in different sizes, but were comprised of iron rims and upper bands with two iron ring handles, and copper-alloy bowls. For more, go to “Letter from Wales: Hillforts of the Iron Age.”
