Near Chelmsford in Essex, archaeologists have uncovered a large Iron Age cemetery holding the cremated remains of more than 100 people, among them five richly furnished, high-status burials that speak to real wealth and connection at a pivotal moment in Britain's history, the years just before and after the Roman conquest.
One of the most remarkable finds is this glass bowl. Produced using the sophisticated mould-blowing technique, it ranks among the earliest Roman glass vessels to arrive in Britain. Its presence reveals not only the exceptional craftsmanship of Roman glassmakers but also the far-reaching trade networks that connected Britain with the wider Roman world. Source: UCL Archaeology South-East.
The excavation was carried out by Archaeology South-East, part of UCL’s Institute of Archaeology, led by Angus Forshaw. The completed dig, near Chelmsford, revealed a square, ditch-enclosed cemetery dating mostly to the first century AD, spanning the transition from independent Iron Age Britain to Roman rule following Emperor Claudius’s invasion in AD 43.
Ordinary urns beside extraordinary graves
Most of the burials at the site follow a familiar Iron Age pattern, cremated remains deposited in simple pottery urns. Five graves stood apart entirely. In these, the cremated remains were deposited as piles of burnt bone within large, square pits, surrounded by collections of objects, both practical and genuinely rare, that marked their owners as people of real standing in Iron Age East Anglia.
The grave goods recovered from these high-status burials include copper-alloy vessels, imported ceramic wine jars known as amphorae, an imported glass bowl, hobnails, and brooches, all now undergoing careful cleaning, conservation, and analysis by specialist teams at Archaeology South-East. Angus Forshaw, who led the excavation, said these exceptional grave goods likely reflect diplomatic contact and economic exchange between Iron Age Britain and the Roman Empire, contact that was already underway well before the formal Roman conquest.
Copper-alloy vessel with a swan-head handle terminal. Source: UCL Archaeology South-East.
A cemetery inside a wider landscape
The cemetery did not exist in isolation. Across the roughly 11 hectares investigated, archaeologists identified at least three previously unknown settlements, made up of multiple roundhouses enclosed by ditches, along with associated field systems, waterholes, and smaller agricultural enclosures, evidence of a genuinely populated and active Iron Age landscape surrounding the burial ground.
Initial research suggests the high-status cremations resemble other known finds from the region, comparable to burials previously excavated at Stansted and Stanway, and to the so-called Welwyn-type burials documented at sites in Hertfordshire, a recognized regional tradition of elite Iron Age funerary practice. With excavation now complete, researchers are focused on dating the cemetery more precisely, tracing how the burials relate chronologically to the surrounding settlements, and identifying who these high-status individuals might actually have been.
Although excavation has ended, the study of the finds continues through laboratory analysis. Source: UCL Archaeology South-East.
A city that was never a backwater
The discovery gains extra resonance from what else has recently come out of the ground near Chelmsford. In 2020, metal detectorists uncovered the Great Baddow Hoard nearby, 933 gold Iron Age coins dating to between 60 and 20 BC, the largest hoard of Iron Age gold coins ever found in Britain, since acquired by the Museum of Chelmsford. A further excavation of the hoard’s findspot in autumn 2025 turned up two additional matching coins, bringing the total to 935, though it revealed no further context explaining why the hoard was buried and never recovered.
Claire Willetts, curator and exhibitions officer at the Museum of Chelmsford, said the newly uncovered cemetery, taken together with the Great Baddow Hoard, demonstrates that Chelmsford was never a quiet backwater during the Iron Age, but part of a busy and genuinely connected landscape. She raised the possibility, still untested, that the hoard and the cemetery could be linked, a question the museum plans to explore through its new exhibition.
Ten objects recovered from the cemetery excavation, including glassware, amphorae, and other ceramic items, will go on public display starting July 18, 2026, in a new exhibition at the Museum of Chelmsford titled Timeless Treasures, Unlocking the Great Baddow Coin Hoard, which will also mark the first time all 935 coins from the hoard have been shown to the public together. Later this year, Forshaw is due to give a talk at the museum exploring what these unusually rich graves reveal about elite society in late Iron Age and early Roman Essex.
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Sources. Phys.org (July 10, 2026), UCL Faculty of Social and Historical Sciences; Museum of Chelmsford.
In my ignorand eyes the swan resemles more a snake? Its so sad that thinds nowadays are so misshaped or overloaded. Cheers