The significance of the Melsonby hoard

When the discovery of a new Iron Age hoard was announced this week, a video was released showing a long table laid out with ancient metalwork. The last time I saw anything similar was when the media were shown the Staffordshire Hoard in 2009. That was a pile of Anglo-Saxon military gold and silver, bought by museums in the West Midlands for well over £3 million. Its discovery launched a decade of research by teams of archaeologists and historians. Its impact on thinking about seventh-century England will continue for generations.

The Melsonby hoards – two collections of broken iron and bronze (or other copper alloys) buried in adjacent ditches in the first century AD – could be just as thrilling. Already there are features of the hoards that have never been seen before in Britain.

For now, there are two key questions. What has been found? And what can we guess it might mean? The latter is informed by the site’s Yorkshire location – though not, as has been reported, because it shows that the north of England can give as good as the south.