Huge Anglo-Saxon gold hoard found - bigger than Sutton!

[Neil]

courtesy off BBC Online 24/09/09
 

The UK's largest haul of Anglo-Saxon gold has been discovered buried beneath a field in Staffordshire. Experts said the collection of 1,500 pieces, which may date back to the 7th Century, is unparalleled in size. A spokeswoman for the British Museum said the find, which is due to be classed as treasure, was the equivalent of finding a "new Book of Kells".

Terry Herbert, who found it on farmland using a metal detector, said it "was what metal detectorists dream of".

It may take more than a year for the gold, which is expected to be classed by a coroner as treasure later, to be valued.

The collection contains about 5kg of gold and 2.5kg of silver, making it far bigger than the Sutton Hoo discovery in 1939 when 1.5kg of Anglo-Saxon gold was found near Woodbridge in Suffolk.

Leslie Webster, former keeper at the British Museum's Department of Prehistory and Europe, said: "This is going to alter our perceptions of Anglo-Saxon England as radically, if not more so, as the Sutton Hoo discoveries.

"(It is) absolutely the equivalent of finding a new Lindisfarne Gospels or Book of Kells."

'Absolutely phenomenal'

Mr Herbert, 55, of Burntwood in Staffordshire, who has been metal detecting for 18 years, came across the hoard as he searched land belonging to a farmer friend. The exact location has not been disclosed.

"I have this phrase that I say sometimes; 'spirits of yesteryear take me where the coins appear', but on that day I changed coins to gold.

"I don't know why I said it that day but I think somebody was listening and directed me to it.

 I saw boxes of gold, items exhibiting the very finest Anglo-Saxon workmanship

Duncan Slarke, Finds Liaison Officer
"This is what metal detectorists dream of, finding stuff like this. But the vast amount there is is just unbelievable."

Duncan Slarke, finds liaison officer for Staffordshire, was the first professional to see the hoard which contains warfare paraphernalia, including sword pommel caps and hilt plates inlaid with precious stones.

"Nothing could have prepared me for that," he said.

"I saw boxes full of gold, items exhibiting the very finest Anglo-Saxon workmanship.

"This is absolutely phenomenal.

"It is a hugely important find - the most important one that I have dealt with, but this has got to rank as one of the biggest in the country."

The collection is currently being kept in secure storage at Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery but a selection of the items are to be displayed at the museum from Friday until 13 October.

A Treasure Valuation Committee made up of independent experts will then value the find.
 

[DIGGA]

WOW   WHAT A FIND ,,,, IT COULD BE ANY ONE OF US NEXT  FOLKS  SO LETS GET OUT THERE  AND  THE BEST OF LUCK YO EVERYONE ,,,,,,, BUT  DONT FORGET THE PICS   

[cardiff bats (Paul)]

Heres a link to my old local newspaper ....theres plenty of pics

http://www.expressandstar.com/2009/09/24/massive-gold-hoard-discovered/

[Neil]

Thanks for the photos Bats - amazing photos! We can but dream!

This find will be rewriting history as we know it.

Neil

[waltonbasinman]

You are right there Neil as I suspect the Weekend Wanderers finds will. Two plus points to the Detectorists me thinks.

[cardiff bats (Paul)]

The finds are nearly as good as the axe heads found sunday mate

[Neil]

Some photos!

[Richy]

Stuff that dreams are made of.........

Neil just for a matter of interest (God forbid lol) what would the scrap value of 5kg of gold and 2.5kg of silver be worth in today's market?

[Neil]

I can offer the finder £120,000 in used tenners here and now on the gold as a scrap value price. Tell him to drop me a PM

Cheers
Neil

[Richy]

For "srubbish" read "scrap" lol.

[Neil]

This treasure paints a new picture of our past and the Dark Ages. What makes it outstanding is the sheer quantity - we're talking about 1,500 objects, almost entirely precious metal. Normally you would expect a handful of objects each year of this quality for the period in question, which is the 7th Century.

A metal detectorist finding just one of these objects would consider it the find of their life. To find 1,500 is bizarre and it would blow the average person's mind. Now, everybody wants to know who it belongs to and why it was put there. But those questions are tricky to answer.

For the Anglo-Saxon period, this is an awful lot of wealth for one person, or even one people, to have left in one place. At the moment, we can say what it isn't, even if we can't say what it is. It's not associated with a burial, like Sutton Hoo was, for example.

After that, there are two main possibilities.

The first is that this treasure has been purposefully deposited, like an offering to a god. But, from my 21st-Century perspective, I find it bewildering that someone could shove so much metalwork into the ground as an offering. That seems like overkill.

The other possibility is it's a treasure chest that got lost, or they couldn't come back for it.

 A folded cross - precious metal seemed to mean more than items themselves
The material is predominantly associated with war - swords, sword fittings, bits of helmets and the like - but all the precious metalwork has been stripped.

That means they're not treasuring the objects as wholes, they're taking the precious metals off and keeping them.

Most things we find from the Anglo-Saxon period are what we call "chance finds", in other words the things people lost, or hoards purposefully deposited, or finds from burials. But hoarding is more associated with the Viking period. Things like big coin hoards are more a 10th-Century sort of find. This is a strange phenomenon in this country for the 7th Century.

People will now be working to understand when the material was deposited, then we'll look at what we know of the history - which is not a lot - to tie it down.

The finds date from a wide period, which is unusual, so the first thing this may do is help us improve our dating of the Anglo-Saxon period. Much of what we know about this period is based on archaeology, not written evidence, because that written evidence is so scant.

 What would we make of modern society if we just looked at the material culture, with no context? We've got the objects, but not the historical context.

That's a problem because we understand the world based on what's written down, but we're not that good at understanding people from their material culture.

What would we make of modern society if we just looked at the material culture? What would we try to understand from it with no historical context to put it in?

I don't think it's realistic to identify this with a particular individual. We'll probably never find the owners, although the best bet is a ruler from the kingdom of Mercia, where it was found. In the 7th Century some Mercian rulers, like Penda and Offa, are quite well-known to us. Penda is a bit before this period, and Offa is right at the end, so it has to be someone in the middle.

But our historical sources are limited to people like the monk Bede, who wrote from a Christian perspective.

The Mercian rulers at the time are likely to have been pagan, but they could have been overlooked by Bede even though they might have been important, because he wasn't interested in them - for whatever reason. So this will help us look back at those sources, and those historical figures, with more scrutiny than we did before.

The Dark Ages were called the Dark Ages because it was seen as a period where, after Roman civilisation, somehow we went backwards in time. But this demonstrates there were still wonderful objects being produced, and produced in this country.

It will take years, or decades, to get answers, and we still won't get all of them. We can't just ask questions about this hoard, either - we need to ask questions about how this hoard fits in with everything else we know. Have we made assumptions elsewhere that aren't right? Those are the things we'd like to know about. It's very, very early days

[Neil]

More images

[Jeffc]

They have an official website
http://staffordshirehoard.org.uk
This has loads of photos and other info. It will be interesting to see what valuation they come up with on this as ther is no precedent in recent times!

[DIGGA]

I WOULDENT MIND FINDING  JUST  ONE PIECE OF THAT ,,,, ANY PIECE WOULD DO ,,, IM NOT FUSSY  WHICH ONE    ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,  HEY  NEIL  IF YOU GOT  £120,000   TO SPEND   LOOKS  LIKE  THE DRINKS WILL BE ON YOU  BUD    &*$ A A A A A A A A   

[coleggwent(phil)]

wow now thats a find  thats next on my wish list  i can only see about 20ish bit,s from that hoard were,s all the rest id like to see it all  like you said neil to much there to be a offering or a grave my gess is it was a looted and put there for a later date and he did not come back as we all know it happend that my gess