Iron Age Britain: Cannibalism evidence discussed by expert
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A team from the Poulton Research Project made the “fascinating” find of the settlement in a farmer’s field in Poulton. Over 5,000 artefacts from around 800BC were unearthed, which consisted of 10 roundhouses made of earth and timber with a thatched cone roof. The experts say the finds reveal that wealthy and large community, going against the common view that North West England was sparsely populated during the Iron Age.
The artefacts uncovered included carved toggle antlers from a Red Deer, sacrificial dog burials and even some human remains.
The team said that the findings give “the best-preserved picture of late prehistoric life ever found in [northwest England]”.
Dr Kevin Cootes, an archaeologist at Liverpool John Moores University and consultant for the Poulton Research Project, said: “Very little was known of high-status Iron Age communities in the northwest of England until now.
“We can tell from what we found that this community was very affluent, from trading along the river. Poulton is a well-preserved time capsule of thousands of years of life.
“It is not even a once in a lifetime find, it is a once thousand careers find. It is absolutely fascinating and a privilege to be involved with.”
The people who lived in the settlement during the Iron Age farmed crops and had a number of domestic animals.
And other items like finger rings were imported, while huge amounts of pottery were used to transport salt, which was valued highly at the time, to a high-status settlement which used bulk amounts for food preservation.
That high-status settlement was in the Middlewich area, which is over 30 kilometres (18.6 miles) away from the site in Poulten.
But there was one roundhouse, in particular, that was exciting for the team.
The roundhouse is thought to have belonged to an affluent community leader or tribal chief.
In the one house alone, over 2,500 finds were unearthed from the structure.
Dr Cootes said: “Over 2,500 finds came from this single structure alone, including items which had been ritually deposited as a statement of affluence.”
The researchers found a valuable axe-like farming tool known as an adze, and the carved toggle antler, near the entrance of the roundhouse.
They also found the remains of a dog next to these items, and in the centre of the building a second dog was found.
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The team wrote in an article in Current Archaeology in September 2020: “The neutral soils – which had preserved the site’s medieval skeletons – had the same effect on the delicate Iron Age finds, while the depth of the ditches had guarded them from destruction by historic ploughing.
“These factors combined to provide a stable environment for bone, pottery, and metal, preserving the most complete time-capsule of Iron Age life ever to be recovered in lowland north-west Britain.”
The findings were published in the Journal of the Chester Archaeological Society.
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