The Kelvedon Iron Age Warrior

In 1982 at Kelvedon in Essex, a landowner unearthed an iron age sword while extracting gravel
on one of his fields on a hillside – he contacted one of his friends, Harry Bennett (known as Jim)
who was a policeman at Kelvedon station – and also a keen amateur archaeologist and invited
him to excavate the site which was an isolated burial. The site is also known as an iron age
settlement.

The site is of national importance – it is one of only 15 warrior type burials of this period found
outside of Yorkshire. There is no record of any human remains being found.

The site archive comprised of just seven scribbled lines on a scrap of paper and no photographs
of the excavation are known of. The finds came from a pit 2 metres by 2 metres and were 1.4
metres below the ground surface.

Harry Bennet died in 1994 and the finds were loaned to Colchester Castle Museum by his
family.
Details of the finds
Grave goods dated between 100BC and 32 AD from an Iron Age “warrior” burial which
comprise of :

• one iron sword, `ritually' bent and originally wrapped in cloth, the remains of the cloth
only survive as a mineralised fragment attached to the sword
• one iron shield boss
• two spearheads, one with a ferrule

• one scabbard - The bronze scabbard had an applied decorative strip of bronze running
down the face

• one bronze sword

• one large bronze bowl – roman and imported

• fragmented remains of the bronze handle and rim to a wooden tankard

 • two wheel thrown grog tempered Late Iron Age pedestal urns

• iron fittings from a chest.

According to Paul Sealey, Assistant Curator (Archaeology) at Colchester Museum the spear and
shield boss are of a type not normally found and are a product of an armourer working in France.