Amateur with metal detector finds 1,600-year-old royal ring

Fox News ^ | Mar 28, 2013

[Jet Jaguar]

Did this intricate piece of sapphire, gold and glass belong to the King of France, some 1,600 years ago?

A group of archaeologist met at the Yorkshire Museum in England last week to discuss the Escrick Ring, an intricately worked gold ring surrounding a brilliant blue sapphire discovered in 2009 by an amateur metal-detector enthusiast.

[Albion Wilde]

With the proceeds, he will be able to get his teeth whitened. (Groaner alert!)

[dfwgator]

One Ring To Rule Them All.

[Doogle]

...wasn’t it a few months back that another metal detector found jewelry from the middle ages?

[yarddog]

I used to work with a guy who was constantly finding really neat things with his metal detector. I know he had found and returned several class rings.

I thought it sounded like fun and in 1986 bought a nice Whites. I guess I never did get really good with it as I never found anything other than some coins, a pocket knife and a few other odds and ends. None of the coins were valuable.

[katana]

It's clear from the article that the ring was found in Yorkshire, in the north of what is today England. In the fifth century (i.e. 1,600 years ago) that area was in transition from Roman to Romanized Britons' rule. The legions left around 410. If the ring was made in (what is now) France around that time it was most likely a Briton with connections to the Continent who brought it to Yorkshire. There was no "King of France" at that time.

It is good to know that British journalists can be as historically ignorant as their American counterparts. Well, nearly.

[Chode]

looks more like a Queens ring... but then again, they say it's French

[yarddog]

I am sure the Franks or maybe it was the Gauls had kings back then. We may just no know who they were.

[The Antiyuppie]

“With the proceeds, he will be able to get his teeth whitened. (Groaner alert!)”

You mean he can’t just walk into a dentist and get that done for nothing? Don’t they have free health care there?

</sarc>

[familyop]

5th or 6th century? About the time the Saxons left england or shortly after.

[familyop]

"I am sure the Franks or maybe it was the Gauls had kings back then. We may just no know who they were."

True. The Gauls were organized enough to sack Rome shortly before the beginning of the 5th Century, which was not long before the Saxons left England.

[Lockbar]

[familyop]

Oops...sorry. Here’s a correction of my error.

True. The Gauls were organized enough to sack Rome long before the beginning of the 5th Century, which was quite long before the Saxons left England—roughly 800 years. I was way off.

[katana]

More like chieftains really, but they undoubtedly called themselves "Kings". The Merovingians were the first to rule a Frankish kingdom and that did begin in the late 5th century. But they weren't "Gauls" by that time. The Franks were Germanic and not Celtic. The true Gauls sacked Rome in 390 BC. Which the Romans never forgot and finally avenged totally under Julius Caesar.

Begs the question, though, about how a supposed Frankish ring made its way to and was buried or lost in the Saxon area that one day became known as Yorkshire (a Danish name). The history of Britain in those times is hard to decipher with various continental peoples invading and overrunning each other. Each successive one changed the language and culture leading eventually into what we can now call "English".

[katana]

I think you mean left for England from Saxony (the North of what is now Germany). The Angles, another Germanic group, migrated around the same time, hence the name Anglo Saxon. Then the Danes and a smattering of Norwegians, the Normans (Viking stock who were settled in the northwest of France to be kept happily away from sacking Paris). For around 600 years England was the Grand Central Station of really bada** fellows with axes and swords.

[familyop]

Thank you. True about trying to decipher history during those times. I’ve only managed to take time to read a few accounts as related by English locals to monks long after events, to read from a few studies and the like. More than a little rusty, too. And yes, accounts and names varied from place to place and language to language (being so varied to this day).

[Albion Wilde]

LOL!

[SunkenCiv]

GGG managers are SunkenCiv, StayAt HomeMother & Ernest_at_the_Beach	join list or digest view topics view or post blog bookmark post a topic subscribe
Thanks Albion Wilde. Just adding to the catalog, not sending a general distribution. To all -- please ping me to other topics which are appropriate for the GGG list.

[Altariel]

Lost! My Precious is lost!

[colorado tanker]

Wow, it's in great shape. Really beautiful.

There is some speculation that after the withdrawal of the Legions York became the seat of a kingdom of Ebruac, after the Roman name for York. It collapsed in the invasions from Germany. Just because the ring was made in Gaul doesn't mean it necessarily was owned by an official located there.