Anglo-Saxon Gold Found in Staffordshire
Experts Amazed by Metal Detector’s Finds
Now leading archaeologists and historians are comparing it to the discovery of a new Book of Kells or Lindisfarne Gospels and claiming it dramatically increases what is known about a shadowy period in Britain’s past.
Huge Public Interest
The amount of gold found far surpasses the treasures found in the internationally famous Sutton Hoo ship burial in Suffolk, south east England, in the 1930s. A limited display of some of the items in a museum has seen thousands of members of the public queuing round the block for a sight of the treasure.
The treasure was found in July by metal detector enthusiast Terry Herbert in a location which is still being kept very secret, but is close to the former Saxon religious, political and military centre on the site of the present city of Lichfield.
The five kilos of gold so far discovered, which compares to the 1.5k found at Sutton Hoo, includes a total of 1,300 items and features 84 sword pommels, three Christian crosses and parts of several helmets. Some of the ornaments are said to come from as far away as Sri Lanka.
The Christian items include an engraved quote from the Old Testament and experts have already suggested that the religion may therefore have penetrated the Saxon kingdoms more quickly and completely than earlier thought, although the burial at Sutton Hoo was predominantly pagan.
It has been declared a Treasure Trove by the local coroner – whose job involves judging discoveries like this as well as investigating up-to-date suspicious deaths – and therefore it can be sold. Mr Herbert and others who were instrumental in the discovery stand to make a fortune when the treasures are sold to a museum.
Shedding Light on a Murky Period in History
The discovery will shed a little more light on a very murky period in English history, often called the Dark Ages because so little was written and therefore about which so little is known outside legends like those which helped give rise to the great Saxon poem Beowulf.
Already, speculation has centred on why such items were deposited on that particular site and whether there was any connection with the Saxon settlement at what is now the city of Lichfield.
For much of Anglo Saxon times, roughly from the fifth to the late 11th century and the Norman Conquest, that area of Britain was part of a kingdom called Mercia which stretched right across Britain from Wales to the North Sea and from the edges of what are now Cumbria and Yorkshire down to the River Severn and the Thames Valley.
There was repeated warfare between Mercia and its rival Anglo-Saxon kingdoms, with each competing for power over the whole county. The fortunes of Mercia rose and fell on more than one occasion within the period that experts say is represented by the Staffordshire hoard.
Archaeological investigation of the site so far suggests to the archaeologists that the hoard was buried in isolation and the lack of material and remains that can be dated exactly material means it can only be roughly dated to the late seventh or early eighth centuries.
Booty from War?
At least one expert has suggested that the hoard may be the result of one ruler’s successful warfare against another.
The new finds appear to date from the seventh century, roughly the same period as the Sutton Hoo Treasure, which was discovered around the remains of a ship burial on the coast of the Saxon kingdom of Anglia, and its craftsmanship and style suggests that while Britain was divided into separate kingdoms, that division did not prevent it being a sophisticated country.
Most of the treasure is currently in storage with a collection of choice pieces on temporary public display. Its final destination is unknown, but local museums in the north east are expected to be its final resting place and the British Museum has promised it will not be taken out of the country.
Who Were the Anglo Saxons?
Anglo-Saxon is the name given to Teutonic tribes who invaded Britain after the Romans abandoned the country and gradually established kingdoms in the south east, then the east, the north and the rest of what is now England. The name England is itself believed by some scholars to be a corruption of Angle-land or Anglalond although there is no final agreement on how the name developed.
The language of the Saxons, Old English, is a linguistic ancestor of modern English although almost unintelligible to a modern reader who has not studied it.
Treasure on Show
The future resting place of the treasure is unknown but it is expected to be put on permanent display in a museum in the Midlands or North East England.
Sources: UK daily press (Times, Telegraph), BBC national and local news, Council for British Archaeology, Anglo Saxon England (Stenton), South Staffordshire Coroner's Office, British Museum.
One of the gold items
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Some of the Saxon treasures
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