birmingham museum

The Staffordshire Hoard has been valued today at a whopping £3.285million ($5.438m). The figure is a quarter of a million more than was reported earlier this week, and over three million more than many experts had predicted upon its discovery. The bill is expected to be picked up by Birmingham Museum and Art Galley and the Potteries Museum and Art Gallery in Stoke, who are launching a joint bid to keep the collection in the Midlands near its Saxon homeland of Mercia.

The Staffordshire Hoard has arrived on display at the British Museum in London, as the farmer on whose land it was found has described his experience as 'incredible'. Heritage Key will be heading there to see the maginficent treasure today - look out for the pictures right here! The gold pieces, thought to be part of a Saxon war bounty, were found in a field in the midlands county this July.

The Staffordshire Hoard has been one of the most staggering and inspirational discoveries in British history. Hundreds of stunning gold Saxon artefacts, all bundled into one stash and found over a thousand years later by a lone metal detecting enthusiast - it's a story that could have come straight out of an archaeological thriller. While the necessary steps are taken to secure their future, the treasures are being housed in Birmingham's Museum and Art Gallery. Heritage Key talks to the museum's resident scholar Dave Simmonds about his thoughts on a momentous breakthrough in British heritage.

Not even a month after 4 brave mummies left the Brooklyn Museum to have themselves scanned, and 'Lady Hor' proved to be a male mummy - "scrotum and penis pretty well preserved", another round of mummy CSI uncovered yet another case of 'transgender' behaviour amongst mummies. The Birmingham Museum took three mummies to the Stafford Hospital in a bid to understand how these ancient Egyptians, whose bodied were later mummified, died.