(ORDO NEWS) — For almost 30 years, a team of archaeologists from the Poulton Research Project at Liverpool John Moores University have spent searching for a lost Cistercian abbey in England.
During this time, instead of him, the team has already unearthed hundreds of remains of people from the Middle Ages and Roman artifacts. And they recently discovered the most comprehensive Late Iron Age time capsule ever found in North West England.
Over the past 8 years, the project has excavated 10 dwellings and found more than 5,000 items that indicate the existence of a developed and numerous society in this place. This dispels the conventional wisdom that the North West of England was sparsely populated during the Iron Age.
Scientists believe that this society was very wealthy, thanks to the river, which made it possible to maintain strong trade ties. Traces of the found settlement cover a period of time of about 800 years.
Curious are the clues by which the team was able to find this ancient camp. The fact is that its participants found more than 900 human remains in the chapel of the late Middle Ages. But they rested next to things that were there long before the burials, as if the graves were dug in much more ancient archaeological layers.
The scientists went deeper and indeed found traces of the Iron Age culture – 10 huts with a round foundation and numerous objects created before the 8th century BC. There was pottery, a decorative clasp, what looked like an anvil, and a ditch where waste was dumped.
The most commonly encountered vessel was for transporting salt, so that the inhabitants of this settlement were able to transport salt from the Middlewich area, which is more than 30 km from Poulton.
Local neutral soils ensured the preservation of the remains of both the Middle Ages and the more fragile artifacts of the Iron Age, and the depth was sufficient so that they were not destroyed by plowing.
This provided a gentle environment for bones, pottery and metal, thus preserving the most complete Iron Age time capsule ever found in the lowlands of northwest Britain.
Â
Â
—
Online:
Contact us: [email protected]
Our Standards, Terms of Use: Standard Terms And Conditions.