'The ‘dragonfly charioteer’: a middle Iron Age weapons burial from the edge of the Yorkshire Wolds

One of the most spectacular Iron Age weapons burial discoveries to be made in the UK in the last decade is that of the Mile Charioteer: an elderly man, laid in the box of a chariot that was wheeled whole into a grave pit, with its pony team still ‘in harness’ as if poised for flight into the afterlife (fig. 1). Excavated by MAP Archaeological Practice Ltd. (Stephens 2023), this burial provides a unique opportunity to explore the osteobiography of an individual and his pony team alongside the object histories of different materials buried with him: chariot wheels, linch pins and terrets, a delicate fibula and joints of pork. Reconstructing the life, circumstances of death and send-off given to this individual allows us to explore the wider community of which he was a part, and the character of the extraordinary two-wheeled vehicle and decorated shield, with which he was buried. We argue these objects (the chariot and shield) should be reconceptualised as weapons in their own right on the basis of both their practical role in interpersonal conflict as well as their psychologically intimidating artwork. We will also situate his burial – and that of a nearby shield burial – within wider weapons burials from the UK, suggesting that such rare interments are often linked to those who trained with, wielded or were sometimes wounded by weaponry.