The internationally significant Iron Age find, the Melsonby Hoard, is now on display at the Yorkshire Museum.
The premier exhibition, Chariots, Treasure and Power: Secrets of the Melsonby Hoard, will present the unprecedented discovery of the largest hoard of Iron Age metalwork to ever be found in the United Kingdom.
Opening tomorrow, the exhibition will run from from tomorrow, Friday 15 May until Summer 2027.
Over 800 objects were discovered in 2021 outside the village of Melsonby in North Yorkshire, including fragments of vehicles, adornments from horse harnesses, weapons and hundreds of other individual items that are highly unusual for the Iron Age.
The new exhibition, Chariots, Treasure and Power, at the Yorkshire Museum will be the first time this group of objects have been on public display and showcases the initial stages of research on the hoard.
Buried more than 2,000 years ago, the objects will be showcased alongside digital resources, inviting visitors to get up close to the discovery and dive into the archaeological, scientific, and conservation work shaping future research.
Following its initial discovery in 2021 by metal detectorist Peter Heads, the Melsonby Hoard was excavated and conserved by archaeologists from Durham University and the British Museum, supported by £120,000 in funding from Historic England.
A fundraising campaign was also launched to help save the objects for public museum collection for the rest of time, and “the people of North Yorkshire, Britain and all around the world have really rallied to support us in this fundraising effort,” said exhibition curator and curator of archaeology at York Museums Trust, Emily North.
Alongside a significant grant of £192,096 from the National Heritage Memorial Fund, “that’s given us the opportunity now to put about 20% of the total hoard on display for the first time ever – including ‘The Block’, which is a group of 88 objects that are still corroded together.
“We’re only at the very beginning of starting to understand the significance of this hoard, what it could tell us about Iron Age Britain, so it’s a really exciting moment for visitors to come and enjoy the chance to see these objects as they were discovered, at the very beginning of the conservation research journey.”
“I’d love people to come in here, see this exhibition and want to become archaeologists,” said Glynn Davis, senior curator at Yorkshire Museum.
“We don’t have all the answers – Emily has done a great job of trying to show that this is the start of a story, so we want people to get involved. That’s what’s very exciting and really mysterious about it all.”
The exhibition will be accompanied by a varied programme of events. There will be creative sessions and activities for families, regular talks from the Visitor Experience Team, and the upper balcony of the museum will be transformed into a community display featuring artworks made by students at Melsonby Methodist Primary School.
Further details about the exhibition and information about the upcoming exciting programme of related events, talks and workshops can be found on the Yorkshire Museum website.
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