A SECOND cache of ancient treasure has been earthed in a Jersey field – just months after the largest hoard of Celtic coins ever found was discovered in Grouville.
Metal detectorists found the 3,000-year-old Bronze Age hoard this week lying 30 cm down in a secret location.
The items – which include several bronze axe heads – were discovered in a clay pot about the size of a football.
Conservator at Jersey Heritage Nail Mahrer, who was present at the dig and will be working on the hoard, said that it was another very exciting find.
‘The metal detectorist pulled two axe heads out of the top of the pot and saw more inside,’ he said.
‘The pot measures around 30 cm across and was about 30 cm below the surface.’
Mr Mahrer added: ‘We are not quite sure why they were buried or why the hoard was buried where it was. We found other material with it, such as broken pots.
‘Bronze axes were high-value items and this amount of bronze would have been very valuable.’
It is not the first Bronze Age hoard found in Jersey, but Mr Mahrer said that it is the first time that such traesure has come out of the ground in a pot.
Mr Mahrer now plans to X-ray the pot to discover what else might be inside.
‘It is very exciting,’ he said. ‘To have two hoards in one year is just amazing.’
The hoard of an estimated 70,000 Celtic coins, which includes items of
gold and silver jewellery dating from around 50 BC, was found by metal detectorists Reg Mead and Richard Miles in June.
Since they were removed from the ground, Mr Mahrer has spent hours cleaning the mass of precious metal which attracted thousands of visitors to the Museum when it went on display for three days last month.
