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Buried treasure
JOHN Roberts, senior archaeologist with the University of Manchester with the dagger.
ARCHAEOLOGISTS in Mellor have stumbled upon a magnificent find during their annual summer excavation.
The discovery of a rare flint dagger, which dates back 4,000 years to the Bronze Age, has been unearthed at the site of an ancient Roman Hill Fort surrounding Mellor Church.
Ann Hearle from the Mellor Archaeological Trust said: "It’s a spectacular find, it’s a beauty.
"It’s an amazing find as it’s beautifully made and in perfect condition. It’s absolutely superb, the archaeologists are ecstatic."
The dagger, at five-and-a-half inches long and two inches wide is one of the very few ever found.
"Anyone with an archaeologist background is just absolutely amazed, they just swoon over it. It fills in another gap as we did not have much from the bronze age, all we need now is something from the dark age," says Ann, a local historian.
Peter Noble, the supervising archaeologist who found the dagger, said: "You only get one find like this in a lifetime as an archaeologist."
Since the site’s confirmed discovery in 1998, artefacts dating back to the Mesolithic period – over 10,000 years – and the Bronze Age have been found at the plot which spreads across the Old Vicarage, St Thomas’ Church and adjacent fields, an expanse of nearly six acres.
Currently funded by a Heritage Lottery grant, the recent finds at the site also include a drip galley of an Iron Age roundhouse, Roman pottery, and Mesolithic flints.
The dagger will now be part of a display when the site is once again opened up to the public during the trust’s annual open days.
They take place on Saturday and Sunday from 11am to 4pm. Entry is £3 for adults and 50p for children.
Manchester University archaeologist John Roberts said: "This dagger is an astonishing piece. I have worked on sites all over the country for 18 years and I have never seen anything so beautiful.
"It gave me goose-bumps on the back of my neck when it was found. Daggers like this have been found in the region before, but they are very rare, especially in this condition. Everyone is thrilled to bits."
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