Mount Bures Community Web Site
 


Iron Age relics found at Mount Bures

Mount Bures people witnessed the elaborate burial of a chief circa 10BC who was likely to have been of princely status.
The grave was discovered by chance when workmen were deepening a ditch near the completed embankment for the Stour Valley Railway line.

They found the terminals of a pair of fine fire-dogs, having dug down to almost five feet to free them.
The works foreman directed the men to clear the area carefully and so other finds came to light.

Only the Fire-dogs are on display in Colchester Castle Museum ( see left),the other less substantial finds having been disbursed or lost by the 19th century collectors.

 

   


However, in the Museum there is one wine amphora which closely resembles one shown in Illustration C
It is of the Dressel form 2-4, made in Italy only during the second half of the 1st century BC and valued enough to have been kept as a treasured heirloom by a Belgic chief.
The complete amphora now sadly lost,

Illustration D - a similar amphora, now with a top

   
Other finds included six imported storage jars known as amphorae; pottery platters which mostly fell to pieces on handling; a glass bottle and a bead; the handles and hinges of a disintegrated wooden box; and iron rods which appeared to be part of a royal standard

Reproduced from the book
"Mount Bures it`s Land and it`s People
by Ida Mcmaster
21/09/2015