Hallaton Treasure Gallery, Harborough Museum, Market Harborough, Leicestershire

With all the attention surrounding the discovery of the Anglo-Saxon Staffordshire hoard in 2009, the opening of a new gallery at Harborough Museum displaying the contents of an earlier, but no less interesting, iron-age hoard has gained less publicity than it deserves.

In 2000, metal detectorist Ken Wallace and other volunteers from the Hallaton Fieldwork Group came across some Roman pottery in a field outside their village in south-east Leicestershire.

Along with the fieldwork group, the University of Leicester Archaeological Services began excavating what turned out to be one of the most important iron-age sites in Britain, described by the British Museum as being of national significance.

When the archaeologists dug on the hilltop at Hallaton they found an enclosure ditch protecting what was probably an open-air iron-age shrine. The intriguing site yielded more than 5,000 silver and gold coins, as well as associated finds including a Roman helmet, ingots, tankard handle, jewellery, pig and dog bones and pottery. Most of the items come from the late iron age (100BC-AD43).

The excavations resulted in the £934,000 Southeast Leicestershire Treasure Project to purchase, conserve, interpret and promote the finds. The project includes the display of many of the items at a new exhibition at Market Harborough that now forms the core of the existing town museum.

The treasures on show are described as an “iron-age mystery” and one cannot fail to be intrigued by not only what was discovered, but also the story behind them.

These artefacts are used to interpret the Hallaton site in six separate smaller displays, each dealing with different aspects of the story. All are housed in a circular gallery situated at the heart of the museum.

An excellent locally produced video narrated by the museum’s curator, featuring contributions from all those involved in the project, is a great introduction to the exhibition, although it is not situated at the beginning where it would make most sense, but some metres away in the centre of the displays.

Close to this video is a helpful touchscreen interactive which, using a mixture of video and animation, explains in more detail the different parts of the site and how it was excavated.

One pleasing feature of the exhibition is that it celebrates the work of the amateur groups who not only discovered the hoard in the first place, but also supported the professional archaeologists during the four-year dig.

Attention to detail

Before diving into the treasure itself, the visitor has the opportunity to put the site into context and discover something of iron-age Britain, and the Corieltauvi, the tribe that lived in what is now present-day Leicestershire at the time of the Roman invasion of AD43.

A graphic speculates that the discovery of Roman coins and a cavalry helmet may indicate that the tribe was an ally rather than enemy of the Roman empire, although it will never be known for sure.

A showcase illustrates this with some of the many Romano-British finds excavated at Hallaton, including some fine brooches. Here, as elsewhere in the exhibition, magnifiers are provided to allow visitors to get a closer look at the objects.

The six display units telling the bulk of the Hallaton story are well designed, incorporating showcases, graphics and some interactives. Each display also features the simple but effective use of digital picture frames showing a changing series of images relating to the nearby exhibits.

There were 5,294 Roman and iron-age coins discovered at the site, so it is no surprise that the exhibit showing these is very impressive.

An interactive map illustrating locations all over Britain and Europe reveals just how far some of the coins had travelled. Graphics encourage visitors to look closely at the design of the artefacts. I was drawn to a denarius, dating from the time of Julius Caesar, which shows an elephant trampling a serpent.

Close by, a display tells the story of the discovery of thousands of pig bones, thought to be the remains of lavish iron-age feasts held each autumn and winter just outside the shrine. Gold coins and a tankard handle were also found, but more mysterious is the remains of a sceptre, indicating the influence of druids at the shrine.

Further evidence of the religious significance of the place was found when archaeologists digging a drainage channel revealed what is now called the “ditch deposit”, a hoard of various silver finds including two ingots and a drinking bowl, possibly the only iron-age example ever seen.

The helmet riddle

The final riddle of the Hallaton site was the unearthing of a Roman cavalry helmet. Very few Roman helmets have been found in Britain and the question asked at Harborough is why and how did such an artefact come to be found on an iron-age site?

Two replicas of helmets found at Witcham near Ely and another from Northwich in Cheshire are available for visitors to touch and try on. It is thought that the 1st-century example found at Northwich most closely represents the Hallaton find.

These hands-on exhibits are vital since the Hallaton helmet is not yet on display. It was in such poor condition when excavated that it requires several years of delicate conservation at the British Museum before it can be shown to the public.

This major gap in the exhibition is filled by webcam footage of the British Museum conservator at work and a diary showing the progress made.

Does the Hallaton Treasure exhibition solve the mystery of the site? Probably not, but it intrigues and informs in equal measure, leaving the visitor wishing that they could travel back 2,000 years and see what did happen there.

The Hallaton hoard may not have the glamour of its Staffordshire rival, but its archaeological importance makes it one of the most significant finds of recent years; the imaginative displays at Harborough show just how great a discovery it is.

Tim Bryan is the head of collections and interpretation at the Heritage Motor Centre, Gaydon

Cost £934,000 (£235,000 for the Hallaton Treasure Gallery)
Main funders Heritage Lottery Fund (£650,600), Art Fund (£100,000), MLA/V&A Purchase Fund Grant (£35,000), DCMS Wolfson Museums and Art Galleries Improvement Fund (£35,00),  Headley Trust, Renaissance East Midlands, Friends of Leicester and Leicestershire Museums, the Leicestershire Museums Archaeological Fieldwork Group, Leicestershire County Council
Main contractor Workhaus Projects
Subcontractor Blue: The Design Company