Buried treasure

Folded cross, photo by Daniel Buxton, Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery, licensed by Portable Antiquities under Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial 2.0 Generic

It has been reported this week that the largest ‘hoard’ of Anglo-Saxon gold ever discovered, has been found in a field in Staffordshire (the heart of the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Mercia), by metal-detector enthusiast Terry Herbert. Many times largest than even the celebrated discovery at Sutton Hoo, the Staffordshire hoard contains some 5kg of gold, amounting to some 1500 pieces – with some still embedded in earth. From the pictures, these are astonishing – finely wrought gold, decorated with animals and biblical inscriptions, and inlaid with precious stones. There are sword pommels, parts of helmets and three crosses, suggesting an influence of Christianity more widespread than previously thought.  Perhaps most importantly the find was reported straight away – meaning archaeologists have at least some chance of seeing it in context – although this unremarkable field appears to pose many more questions.

One thing is certain, according to former British Museum curator Lesley Webster, “This is going to alter our perceptions of Anglo-Saxon England”.

In the meantime, why not search Intute for treasure, or see the Staffordshire Hoard on Flickr.

Tags: Anglo-Saxon, Archaeology, Britain, dark ages, Mercia, Staffordshire

This entry was posted on Friday, September 25th, 2009 at 2:37 pm and is filed under Archaeology, Creative and performing arts, Design, History, Humanities, Visual arts. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.