Posted on 09/24/2009 4:10:21 AM PDT by csvset
The UK's largest haul of Anglo-Saxon treasure has been discovered buried beneath a field in Staffordshire. Experts said the collection of 1,500 gold and silver pieces, which may date back to the 7th Century, was unparalleled in size.
It has been declared treasure by South Staffordshire coroner Andrew Haigh, meaning it belongs to the Crown.
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 it 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." The Book of Kells and Lindisfarne Gospels are intricately illuminated manuscripts of the four New Testament Gospels dating from the 9th and 8th Centuries. 'Just unbelievable' 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 over five days in July.
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," he said. "
(Excerpt) Read more at news.bbc.co.uk ...
Thanks for the cultural education. I read and enjoyed your homepage. I enjoy learning new words, like plonker. (I’ll try never to be one.)
Didn't know you guys were having to live with attack-ads on the word 'hoard', my apologies. Communist states routinely attack people who hold property away from 'rightful', 'communal' use, and it's starting where you are :0(
I wondered where I left that stuff... ;-P
King Arthur?
I have a very good feeling that the original owner was a very good guy!
My guess is that this treasure is indeed a King’s Treasure - possibly the treasure of the Kings of Northumbria from about 650 AD.
Reason: if I have learned anything at all from years of playing “Medieval Total War”, it’s that the Northumbrians were Christian and well-lettered before anyone else in England. Whereas Penda of Mercia (where the treasure was found) was a Pagan.
Interesting story. Cutting across the mudflats wasn’t a good idea.
It is the date fixed to this find that interests me as well. And why I would like to know about the inscription on that gold band. Whom ever imprinted that inscription was not an unlearned village idiot. And there is something curious about the timeliness of this find most especially in the UK.
If I had to guess I’d say this stuff was once the regalia of Edwin of Northumbria.
And given the negative connotation the word hoard has to some, wonder why the author or whom ever decided to use this word to describe this find.
I guess you're worried about sentences such as: "She hoard until the age of 30, after which she retired and opened her own betrothal."
Like perhaps God and the ancient Christian Kings of Northumbria calling Britons home to their roots, perhaps?
Thank you!! My King James Version has this verse as Psalms 68:1 Let God arise, let His enemies be scattered: Let them also that hate Him flee before Him.
Very interesting Song of David to be referenced given what the rest of the Song says.
Thank you very much.
Think I’d have kept my mouth shut about it. It didn’t belong to the Crown when the owner was alive, so why the hell should it belong to them now?
lol I am not 'worried', I wanted to know the reasoning behind the word 'hoard' in describing this treasure that has so many in stunned disbelief. And given the days we now are facing concern by the nose picking governing officials about 'hoarding' food, guns, ammo, etc.... and the recent ads showing hoarders living in mass confusion of saving everything, living in what looks like a city dump.
What, read the article before making snide comments? Are you mad?
Could well be. My head is flooded with promises given by the Heavenly Father and this find certainly draws attention to King David if that inscription is from the Psalms.
Although the sale is indeed forced under the Treasure Trove act, the pricing is done over a period of months by independent experts. Keelo vs New London this ain't.
And it's way better than what happened in 1933, when the Roosevelt Gold Confiscation Order seized all Gold in the US with no compensation except for transportation costs, and under threat of a ten-year prison sentence. I still can't believe that really happened.
Weirdly enough, the Roosevelt Gold Confiscation Order also talks disparagingly of “hoarding”. It must be a common meme among despots :0)
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