Havering Hoard : A Bronze Age Mystery

Fascinating exhibition at the Museum of Docklands examining a Bronze Age hoard found in Essex.

The display took you from the finding of the hoard in 2018 though what it contained and why it might have been buried to how it was conserved to go on show and what more there might be to learn.  

The objects seemed to be the working pieces from a metalworkers business and included ingots of copper, broken pieces, mis-fired pieces and the metal which would have dripped out of a mould. I found a lovely razor they’d found quite moving as it felt like such a personal item.  

I liked the section showing each hoard and explaining four reasons why they might have been buried. I was drawn to the one suggesting that as it is late Bronze age that it was buried as a redundant material/skill with the coming of iron. Also the idea that as metalworkers were itinerant they might have buried things they had gathered in one settlement to come back and use on their next visit.  

The show was well laid out with a lovely atmosphere set by a video panorama along one the wall of sunrise over Rainham Marshes which is a similar landscape to where they would have been buried.  

Closes 21 April 2021 

Review

Telegraph


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