Hoard of Bronze Age treasure found on building site set to feature in London exhibition

It is believed the items will become part of a forthcoming Museum of London exhibition

Hundreds of Bronze Age artefacts found on a building site in east London have been declared treasure and are likely to become part of a new museum exhibition.

Axes, swords, spears, rings, copper ingots and a bracelet, as well as working materials dating from between 900BC and 750BC were discovered on a development site in Rainham, Havering, in September last year.

Yesterday the collection of “hugely significant historical artefacts” dubbed the Havering Hoard was deemed a treasure find at Waltham Forest coroner’s court.

It is believed the items will become part of a forthcoming Museum of London exhibition after they have been valued.

Roy Stephenson, the museum’s historic environment lead, said: “We cannot say much yet but what we can safely say is these are hugely significant historical artefacts, which will tell us a lot about Bronze Age Britain.”

More than 450 items were recovered from the site by contractor Archaeological Solutions. Assistant coroner Ian Wade refused to give the exact location of the site to “protect” the land from treasure hunters.

The court heard that the land is being developed and, as part of planning permission requirements, archaeologists were brought in to investigate a “crop circle” on the site. But the discovery of hundreds of ancient items over four hoards was “completely unexpected”, experts said. Some 77 of the artefacts were still intact despite being thousands of years old.

Mr Wade said: “This is indeed an honour. It’s highly unusual. We don’t get many treasure inquests in east London.” He added that the experts have said the Havering Hoard “complements” another Bronze Age site which was discovered in Essex months later.

The entire 45.29kg hoard was examined by Dr Sophia Adams at the University of Glasgow.

Earlier this month she reported to the coroner that she believed the items would constitute treasure. Two of the more unusual pieces discovered included a very rare pair of Bronze Age decorated terret rings used in horse harnesses.

By law, anyone who finds something that they believe could be treasure has 14 days to report their discovery to a coroner, who, after consulting experts, decides whether the find qualifies at an inquest.

If a museum expresses an interest they are given the right to buy them.

The Treasure Valuation Committee will decide how much the items are worth and profits are usually split between the site occupier, landowner and finder.

Mr Wade added: “These objects have acquired the rather catchy title of the ‘Havering Hoard’ [and] I declare that the Havering Hoard is treasure. The Museum of London will now submit the hoard for valuation.”

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in