Nobody knows how the three-legged iron cauldron ended up in the River Wear. Weeks before Halloween, it finally returned to the surface

October 27, 2026 2:06 p.m.

Researchers are examining the cauldron to learn more about its origins. Gary Bankhead

When the divers ducked beneath the surface, they knew their target: a mysterious iron cauldron at the bottom of England’s River Wear. They had no idea how the vessel had ended up there, though they were fairly certain it had been underwater for hundreds of years. Their mission was to recover it from the watery darkness and bring it back to the surface.

The operation unfolded “like clockwork,” Gary Bankhead , an underwater archaeologist at England’s Durham University, tells the Northern Echo ’s Andrew White. “It was very much like a military operation. Everybody had a specific job.”

After freeing the artifact from debris, the divers secured it in thick green netting inside a metal cage.…