Iron Age Metal Artifacts, Dice and Gaming Pieces Uncovered at Burrough Hill

Archeologists from the University of Leicester have unearthed Iron Age metal artifacts along with some dice and gaming pieces on excavating a prehistoric monument, an Iron Age hillfort at Burrough Hill, near Melton Mowbray.

This is one of the biggest groups of Iron Age metal artifacts ever found. The findings have enabled the archeologists to get an insight into the kind of people that existed some 2,000 years ago at Burrough Hill during the Iron Age.

They found nearly 100 metal artifacts that included brooches, knives, a reaping hook, iron spearheads, decorative bronze fittings from buckets and trim from an Iron Age shield, according to a news release.

Project director John Thomas said in a press statement, "To date the three excavation seasons have produced a wide array of finds that have transformed our understanding of how the hillfort was used, the length of occupation and the contacts that its occupants had with other regions. The last excavations focussed on a series of large storage pits that had become filled in with domestic refuse and produced a significant collection of objects including one of the largest groups of Iron Age metalwork from the East Midlands."

The metal artifacts offer various clues on the social lives of the people who lived in that period. Archeologists found a bone dice and gaming pieces along with a polished bone flute and a blue glass bead from a necklace. Compared to findings such as farmsteads on contemporary sites, these findings reveal the difference in status along with access to a wider material culture.

In order to understand how the hillfort was used, archeologists will excavate more areas at the hilltop interior.