Iron Age Finds in Berkshire

Abstract

A SERIES of archaeological investigations on the Berkshire Downs has been organised by the Newbury Field Club under a scheme for the relief of unemployment. Some interesting finds have been made, of which the most noteworthy is an interment of two horses. The skeletons, which were found with their legs intertwined, according to a report from the Times correspondent in the issue of August 13, belong to the large-headed, short-necked and short-legged type of the Iron Age breed represented in modern times by the Exmoor and New Forest ponies. One of the skeletons is said to be exceedingly well preserved, but the other had lost its head. The burial is compared with the Yorkshire chariot burials which are generally held to belong to the earliest phase of the later, or La Tene, period of the Iron Age. The Berkshire example did not, however, include harness and chariot as in the Yorkshire burials. A few miles west of the horse interment, a bronze age burial also included the remains of a domesticated animal. In this instance the skeleton of a dog was found in association with a human skeleton in the contracted position. Other finds include a fragment of beaker pottery (c. 1800 B.C.), and a Roman copper bracelet, found on the same site as the horse burial, and iron age pottery and an ornamented fragment of a Saxon shield found at Scutchamore Knob, near East Hendred.