Havering Hoard Includes Unexpected Imports

News February 10, 2020

(Museum of London)
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Digs England Havering Hoard
(Museum of London)

LONDON, ENGLAND—The Museum of London has announced the discovery of imported rings, copper ingots, and a bracelet within the objects of the so-called Havering Hoard, according to a report in The GuardianFirst excavated from a quarry in east London over a period of three months in 2019 and dating to between 900 and 800 B.C., the Havering Hoard is a staggering haul of 453 swords, axes, kives, chisels, sickels, ingots, and bracelets. It is the third largest Bronze Age hoard ever discovered in the United Kingdom. Examination of a pair of rings suggests they may not have adorned fingers but rather were used to prevent rein tangling on horse-drawn carts. Contemporaneous examples have been found in France but never in Britain. Researchers also identified a bracelet believed to be from what is now northwest France and copper ingots possibly originating from the Alps. For more on the Havering Hoard, go to "Tool Time." 

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