Buried with full honours in Yorkshire, his final resting place became a shrine to the nation.
And the man whose remains and chariot were discovered while digging roadworks in West Yorkshire could have been so revered that thousands visited his grave 400 years after his death to stage a feast in his honour – and to show the invading Romans that they would never be cowed.
Archaeologists from Bradford who are now studying the astonishing find of a skeleton buried with an intact chariot believe his grave may have became a focus for national pride still remembered during the Roman colonisation.
Angela Boyle, who led the excavation, said it was astonishing.
"It flies in the face of all our theories. The preservation of all the elements was particularly excellent. It's hugely significant."
The Iron Age warrior, thought to have died while in his 30s, was buried in the fourth century BC wearing a red glass brooch and an intact chariot complete with iron wheels and harness.
But it was the ditch around the burial site that threw up the oddest find — the bones of more than 300 cattle from all over Britain, slaughtered all at the same time, more than 400 years later.
Isotope analysis of the bones at the University of Bradford showed they were not from one herd but from all over Britain, including the Scottish Highlands.
It is thought thousands of people travelled for hundreds of miles bringing their cattle with them for the feast, which was held after the Roman invasion.
Ms Boyle, of Oxford Archaeology, said: "We were very surprised when we obtained radiocarbon dates and found they were from the first century AD. There's also evidence of a wooden shrine nearby.
"At that time, there was increasing Romanisation in the area. This feast may have been a re-assertion of their rights of ownership and identity.
"We don't know if they remembered the person who was buried there, but there would have been a mound over the chariot, it would have been visible and its identity known."
She added: "The area around contains a lot of quite significant burial mounds so it would appear that that area was of huge significance for several thousand years."
Studies of strontium isotopes in the warrior's teeth threw up another surprise – he was not local to the area.
Levels of the isotope are deposited in teeth as they form through childhood depending on the amount of strontium in the earth, where food is grown.
The charioteer's strontium levels show he was from the Scottish Highlands or possibly Scandinavia.
He could have moved to Yorkshire after childhood, or he may have been brought after death to be buried at this sacred site.
He was granted every honour, being buried with a prestigious chariot with iron tyres and with a huge red glass brooch pinning his cloak.
But close examination of the chariot revealed a few corners may have been cut in his burial rites – the chariot appears to have been assembled from spare parts which didn't quite match.
And part of the harness wasn't made of more expensive iron, but instead from cheap clay, covered with copper to make it glint.
The find was made at Ferrybridge during roadworks to upgrade the A1. It is only the second intact chariot burial ever found, and the only one in West Yorkshire.
Nineteen others have been discovered in the UK, mostly in Wetwang, East Yorkshire, with one found in Newbridge, near Edinburgh.
The burial tradition was widely practised by the Arras culture in the Yorkshire Wolds, and may have originated in central Europe.
The dig, undertaken by specialist contractor Oxford Archaeology, and post-excavation analysis by the University of Bradford, was funded by the Highways Agency.
amy.binns@ypn.co.uk