Archaeologists at the University of Leicester have been taking their students to Burrough Hill, leading excavations at the Iron Age hill fort located in the countryside of central England outside the town of Melton Mowbray.
Now it seems all those trips and digging has paid off, due to the recent discovery of several fragments of an ancient bronze chariot.
"This is a matching set of highly-decorated bronze fittings from an Iron Age chariot -- probably from the 2nd or 3rd century BCE," said Dr. Jeremy Taylor, an archaeology professor at the university and co-director of the Burrough Hill field project, according to a University of Leicester press release. "This is the most remarkable discovery of material we made at Burrough Hill in the five years we worked on the site. This is a very rare discovery, and a strong sign of the prestige of the site."
Researchers were shell-shocked when students working on the dig started pulling the bronze fittings from the ground.
The unearthing is being described as the "discovery of a lifetime."
"I have been excavating for 25 years and I have never found one of these pieces - let alone a whole set. It is a once-in-a-career discovery," Taylor added.
The finely decorated chariot most likely belonged to a warrior or nobleman and was buried and burned as a religious sacrifice.
"Realizing that I was actually uncovering a hoard that was carefully placed there hundreds of years ago made it the find of a lifetime," said Nora Battermann, one of the students who pulled the first pieces of bronze from the dirt, according to the university. "Looking at the objects now they have been cleaned makes me even more proud, and I can't wait for them to go on display."
The researchers are not busy making arrangements for the excavated artifacts to be housed in a permanent display. They first will be taken to Leicester's School of Archaeology and Ancient History for additional testing.
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