7th Century Saxon Pendant Unearthed

icLoughborough ^ | 4-10-2007

[blam]

7th Century Saxon pendant unearthed

Apr 10 2007

A TREASURE seeker from Shepshed has discovered a 7th Century pendant near his home.

Stacey Spiby, 36, found the rare and valuable Anglo Saxon piece of jewellery while combing a nearby field with a metal detector.

The oval pendant, which is about 2.5cm long and 1.8cm wide still needs to be valued, but according to Peter Liddle, Leicestershire County Council’s keeper of archaeology, it may be worth “in the region of a few thousand pounds.”

Mr Liddle told the Echo:“ This find is very unusual - it is very much like the items found in Suffolk during 1939 when the worldfamous Sutton Hoo hoard was discovered.”

The pendant is being held at the British Museum in London awaiting valuation, but it was officially declared an item of treasure last week.

Mr Liddle added: “This pendant would not have belonged to a King, but whoever owned it was definitely high up on the social ladder.

‘Not as intricate’

“The pendant is not as intricate as the find in 1939, but it is still an attractive piece of jewellery.

“It would have originally been part of a team of six or seven other pendants on the same necklace, and the remaining pendants may still be in the field - you never know, but the reasons behind the final settlement of the piece could be down to a number of things.

“It may be that the owner just lost it while walking or riding, or it could have been buried in a burial.

“The done thing at that time would have been to take a few things with you to the afterlife - we will just never know, but it is from the Anglo Saxon period when Britain was converting to Christianity, but how it came to be in Shepshed will remain a mystery.”

County Hall has shown an interest in buying the pendant to put on display in Charnwood Museum, but that depends on its value. Once it has been sold, Mr Spiby and the land owner will have an equal share.

[blam]

GGG Ping.

[Red Badger]

From Saxon’s 5th Avenue?........

[E Rocc]

Damn, I didn't think they'd been around that long.

-Eric

[jimfree]

From Saxon’s 5th Avenue?........

Excellent. I was going to try a play on Tiffany's but don't have it in me today.

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks Blam.

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[wayne_b24]

didn’t bill clinton play one o’ those?

[<1/1,000,000th%]

Like this belt buckle?

[Frank_Discussion]

Give it back. Now.

[Ciexyz]

Darn, no photo.

[rightwingintelligentsia]

it may be worth “in the region of a few thousand pounds.”

Still worth less than any random piece in Pelosi's jewelry box.

[af_vet_rr]

They have an interesting program over there in England, that encourages people to get out and use metal detectors (and generally explore).

If you find something, assuming you have permission to check the land (if you don't own it), if it's a treasure of "national interest" or whatever, the British National Museum (they have local offices all over the UK) takes it, restores it/cleans it up, has it evaluated, and whatever the price is, if a museum wants it, they pay you the price, it goes on display (with your name attached). If no museums want it or want to pay the price, then after a year you are free to sell it on the open market. If you do not own the land it was found on, you share the proceeds with the land owner. If it appears to be part of a bigger find, the National Museum comes out with a full archaelogical team and excavates (apparently they move pretty fast, in order to protect the site from looters).

The end result is, apparently a lot of retired people are making a bit of money taking their metal detectors out and poking around. I may have missed some things, but a friend of mine made about $40,000 USD from some Roman stuff he found. When he was telling me, I was kind of flabbergasted. It sounded like a really cool program to help recover a lot of things that might have otherwise been lost.

[Fairview]

We have a free-enterprise version of that here. People buy metal detectors, sneak onto National Park Service land or private property at night, and dig up the relics of our Civil War and Revolution to sell on Ebay or at relic shows. Now the NPS has motion detectors near some of its popular monuments and park rangers patrolling the major battlefields at night, while farmers are continually chasing relic-hunters off their land. The British Museum system seems a lot better.

[bpjam]

A sign of early Angry White Men perhaps??

[truth_seeker]

Sutton Hoo

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sutton_Hoo

See Beowulf, too.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beowulf

[Tallguy]

Mr Liddle told the Echo:“ This find is very unusual - it is very much like the items found in Suffolk during 1939 when the worldfamous Sutton Hoo hoard was discovered.”

Yeah, me & my buddies were just talking about the Sutton Hoo hoard over a few beers last weekend!

[pleikumud]

The Saxons had income inequality, allowing some dude to wear expensive jewelry.

[Sam Ketcham]

“Worth a few thousand pounds”.... to the County. I believe it is finders losers in the UK.

[Jedi Master Pikachu]

Europe pinglist.

[Vicomte13]

Was Sutton a nappy-headed Hoo?