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The Corbridge Hoard is a hoard of mostly iron artefacts that was excavated in 1964 within the Roman Britain site of Coria, next to what is now Corbridge, Northumberland, England.
It came from amongst the central range of administrative buildings in one of the early castra underlying the later Roman town and probably dates to between AD 122 and 138.
The most famous objects within were six upper and six lower half-units of 'lorica segmentata' armour which, although mis-matched, could represent as few as three whole , or elements of twelve partial sets. It was this discovery that enabled Charles Daniels and H. Russell Robinson to understand how this type of armour should be reconstructed. Prior to the discovery of the Hoard, "people knew there was the segmented armour, but we didn’t know how it was put together or how it was made".
The Corbridge Hoard also contained bundles of still tied together with cord; ballista; a scabbard; various tools and implements (including a pulley and a crusie lamp); items associated with carpentry, such as nails and joiner's dogs; a small wooden bucket or tankard. There were also fragmentary remains of feathers (possibly cushion stuffing or helmet plumes), wax tablet, and (almost uniquely in Roman Britain) fragments of papyrus.
All of the organic components in the Hoard (including the box itself) had been preserved by mineralization brought about by the of its iron and steel contents.
The Hoard has been variously interpreted as material hurriedly concealed from attacking barbarians; deliberately buried in order to accumulate verdigris and rust for medicinal purposes; or detritus from clearing out a workshop when a garrison moved on from the site (and buried to deny the raw materials to an enemy).
The full English Heritage report on the contents and interpretation of the hoard is now available through the Archaeology Data Service
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