The girl with the chariot medallion: a well-furnished, Late Iron Age Durotrigian burial from Langton Herring, Dorset

Abstract

A well-furnished, Late Iron Age Durotrigian burial was found in 2010 by a metal-detectorist at Langton Herring in Dorset. This report examines all aspects of the discovery, paying particular attention to the skeletal remains, a female aged 19-24, providing the most complete, osteobiographical study of an individual buried with a mirror assemblage from the European Iron Age. A combination of artefacts and radiocarbon dating gives a range for the burial of c. AD 25cal AD 53. The grave goods themselves are of exceptional interest, representing an accumulation of artefacts acquired from diverse sources, deposited at a time of major cultural and societal change in southern Britain. The results of a geophysical survey are also presented, together with a discussion of additional wellfurnished burials in the Durotrigian tribal tradition, which place the burial deposit within a wider social and landscape framework.

Iron Age Mortuary Practices in Britain: An Assessment of Current Trends and their Characteristics within Contemporary North-western European Traditions

“…Of particular note in this group are the discovery of rich mirror burials at Portesham (Fig. 17;Fitzpatrick 1996) and Langton Herring, Dorset (Russel et al 2019), both of which were biologically female.…”