Keith Emerick

Inspector of Ancient Monuments at Historic England

How were you involved?

Tom Moore contacted me to tell me what the detectorist had discovered and what he had observed. He thought the find was nationally important and asked if Historic England could provide any assistance. I contacted the grants team to explain what the find was and why it was nationally important. They approved funding for the excavation, the recovery of the finds, and their stabilisation and conservation.

What makes the discovery unique?

The find is one of the most important Iron Age discoveries ever made in Britain.

We know that Iron Age communities in Britain were complex and had wider connections and affiliations across Europe, but to see this so clearly expressed in the range of material from Melsonby is quite staggering. This importance is further underlined because it is from the north of England. Much of the work on the Iron Age has been conducted in the south of the country, and it should always have been assumed that comparable evidence  should exist in the north, but it needed the evidence to demonstrate this this was the case – and the material from Melsonby illustrates that case in an exceptional manner.

What have you learnt?

It has been wonderful to see the opulence of a particular strata of Iron Age society and to find it in the North East of England. It was a unique opportunity to see the quality, skills and reach of the people making this material. The whole project has been a great example of how a number of individuals and organisations can work together, starting with the landowner and detectorist who did exactly the right thing and got the right people involved.