Ironwork Hoards in Iron Age

T is now twenty years since Professor Stuart Piggott published his classic paper on 'Three Metalwork Hoards of the Roman Period from Southern Scotland',' in which he re-examined the ironwork hoards from Blackburn Mill, Berwickshire, Carlingwark Loch, Kirkcudbrightshire, and Eckford, Roxburghshire. Since then no fewer than four new hoards of ironwork have been found in Scotland or the north of England, and five in southern England: a series of discoveries which amply justifies a reappraisal of their significance. Their importance in the study of Romano-British ironwork can scarcely be exaggerated, for they provide a width of types and a series of associations which does not occur in the material from excavations. Many of the pieces are unique, or are the only complete examples of their type surviving, and together they form the largest group of dated ironwork from Roman Britain, indeed probably in British archaeology. Yet, with the partial exception of Professor Piggott's paper, they have never been considered as a group, and many even among the older discoveries remain unpublished. There are a surprising number of such hoards from Roman Britain, some