The Deal Warrior, also known as the Mill Hill Warrior, is an

Iron Age The Iron Age () is the final epoch of the three historical Metal Ages, after the Chalcolithic and Bronze Age. It has also been considered as the final age of the three-age division starting with prehistory (before recorded history) and progre ...

burial uncovered in Grave 112 at Mill Hill near

Deal In cryptography, DEAL (Data Encryption Algorithm with Larger blocks) is a symmetric block cipher derived from the Data Encryption Standard (DES). Its design was presented by Lars Knudsen at the SAC conference in 1997, and submitted as a proposa ...

Kent Kent is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Essex across the Thames Estuary to the north, the Strait of Dover to the south-east, East Sussex to the south-west, Surrey to the west, and Gr ...

in 1988 by Dover Archaeological Group. It is well known for being suggested as the grave of a

druid A druid was a member of the high-ranking priestly class in ancient Celtic cultures. The druids were religious leaders as well as legal authorities, adjudicators, lorekeepers, medical professionals and political advisors. Druids left no wr ...

due to containing an almost-unique bronze headdress.

Background

The grave, dated to around 250 to 150 BCE, contained the skeleton of a man in his thirties, short and slightly built. With the skeleton was a long iron sword, bronze fittings for a

scabbard A scabbard is a sheath for holding a sword, dagger, knife, or similar edged weapons. Rifles and other long guns may also be stored in scabbards by horse riders for transportation. Military cavalry and cowboys had scabbards for their saddle ring ...

and belt, a bronze

brooch A brooch (, ) is a decorative jewellery item designed to be attached to garments, often to fasten them together. It is usually made of metal, often silver or gold or some other material. Brooches are frequently decorated with enamel or with gem ...

studded with coral, and bronze fittings for a large shield. The quality of these finds suggests the grave was a high status burial, as swords were an expensive item available only to the

aristocracy Aristocracy (; ) is a form of government that places power in the hands of a small, privileged ruling class, the aristocracy (class), aristocrats. Across Europe, the aristocracy exercised immense Economy, economic, Politics, political, and soc ...

and their retainers, and the wealthier freemen.

The crown

On the skull was a bronze headband, with the remains of another band that would have gone over the top. Both the skull and the "crown", as it came to be named, were badly damaged, thought by the archaeologists who discovered it to be the result of ploughing. Closer inspection after cleaning revealed it to be intricately decorated in the La Tène style. The bronze, now dull, would once have been burnished till it shone. Examination also revealed imprints of hair on the inside of the crown, indicating it was worn without a liner, also proving it was not worn over a leather helmet, as some had suggested.

Druid theory

A connection has been drawn between this crown and headdresses found in later

Romano-British The Romano-British culture arose in Britain under the Roman Empire following the Roman conquest in AD 43 and the creation of the province of Britannia. It arose as a fusion of the imported Roman culture with that of the indigenous Britons, ...

religious sites at

Hockwold Hockwold cum Wilton is a civil parish and village in the English county of Norfolk. Hockwold is located west of Thetford and south-west of Norwich. History Hockwold cum Wilton's name is of Anglo-Saxon origin and derives from the Old Englis ...

Norfolk Norfolk ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in England, located in East Anglia and officially part of the East of England region. It borders Lincolnshire and The Wash to the north-west, the North Sea to the north and eas ...

, and Wanborough,

Surrey Surrey () is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Greater London to the northeast, Kent to the east, East Sussex, East and West Sussex to the south, and Hampshire and Berkshire to the wes ...

. It also bears a resemblance to descriptions of Iron Age antiquarian finds from

Newnham Croft Newnham may refer to: Places In England * Newnham, Bedford, an area in the town of Bedford *Newnham, Cambridgeshire * Newnham, Gloucestershire (also known as Newnham on Severn) *Newnham, Hampshire * Newnham, Hertfordshire *Newnham, Kent *Newnham, ...

Cambridgeshire Cambridgeshire (abbreviated Cambs.) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the East of England and East Anglia. It is bordered by Lincolnshire to the north, Norfolk to the north-east, Suffolk to the east, Essex and Hertfor ...

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and

Cerrig-y-Drudion Cerrigydrudion, sometimes spelt ''Cerrig-y-drudion'', () is a village and community (Wales), community in Conwy County Borough, Conwy, Wales. Until 1974 it was part of the historic county Denbighshire (historic), Denbighshire, when it became par ...

Clwyd Clwyd ( , ) is a preserved counties of Wales, preserved county of Wales, situated in the north-east corner of the country; it is named after the River Clwyd, which runs through the area. To the north lies the Irish Sea, with the English cerem ...

. It has been suggested that headdresses found at Romano-British temples may have been following a long-standing tradition. The implied religious connection has led some historians to suggest that the Deal Warrior may well have been a druid, a member of the pre-Roman British intellectual and priestly class. Others have suggested the crown, together with the warrior nature of the burial, implies a military leader.

References

* * * * * {{cite book , editor=Parfitt, Keith , title=Iron Age Burials from Mill Hill, Deal , publisher=British Museum Press , location=London , date=1995 , isbn=0-7141-2304-8 , pages=58–95 Iron Age sites in England