The first pieces of the Staffordshire Hoard were found in early July 2009 by Mr Terry Herbert while he was metal detecting in a field in southern Staffordshire. In total over 1,500 complete artefacts and fragments were discovered.
Finds included sword fittings, part of a helmet and three gold Christian crosses. The hoard contains approximately 5kgs of gold and 2.5kg of silver. In comparison, Sutton Hoo, the world-famous Anglo-Saxon burial ground in South East Suffolk, had 1.66kg of gold.
Most of the complete objects are made of gold. Some are decorated with pieces of garnet, a deep red semi-precious stone, others with fine filigree work or patterns made up of animals with interlaced bodies. Current thinking dates the hoard to the later 600s or earlier 700s AD.
The recent discovery of the Staffordshire Hoard has turned up over 1,500 pieces of stunning gold and silver artfacts from the 7th century Dark Ages era. The hoard contains approximately 5kgs of gold and 2.5kg of silver. In comparison, Sutton Hoo, the world-famous Anglo-Saxon burial ground in South East Suffolk, had 1.66kg of gold.
The find has been described as "unparalleled" and represents the largest haul of Anglo-Saxon treasure ever to have been discovered, within an area which was the heartland of the Kingdom of Mercia.
As blogged by Sean yesterday, a precious hoard of Iron Age gold treasures worth an estimated £1 million has been discovered by a first-time metal detector enthusiast near Stirling. It was unveiled to the media at an event at the National Museum of Scotland this morning. The collection was described as “the most important hoard of Iron Age gold found in Scotland to date.”
If seems that Britain (the Hoard made it to 'most viewed' on the BBC website today) - and Heritage Key (mine is definitely not the first blogpost on the topic) - can't get enough of the Mercian Treasure baptised 'the Staffordshire Hoard'. Realising what an incredible find this is - or standard archaeological procedure? - Birmingham University Archaeology published the actual unearthing of the collection of Anglo-Saxon hoarded wealth, at that point still looking more like little stones than the actual gems they are. In the video you see the archaeologists carefully searching the sand, digging up the precious artefacts... but help me out here and clarify; what is that - rather funny - apparatus? A metal detector on wheels?
Anyway, make sure to watch this great 'revealing' video by Birmingham University Archaeology, and applaud them for filming the excavation and making that large an amount of image material and information available on the web.
The recent discovery of the Staffordshire Hoard has turned up over 1,500 pieces of stunning gold and silver artfacts from the 7th century Dark Ages era. The find has been described as "unparalleled" and represents the largest haul of Anglo-Saxon treasure ever to have been discovered, within an area which was the heartland of the Kingdom of Mercia. The Mercian tribe was particularly aggressive in their conquests and fought to expand the land in their control - centered on the valley of the river Trent, what today is the English Midlands - in wars against Northumbria and East Anglia. Out of the more than thousand artefacts, we've chosen the 5 most astonishing ones to show to you.
The largest collection of beautiful quality gold and silver treasures from the seventh century Anglo-Saxon period has been discovered in a field by a plucky metal detectorist, who's previous plights had bought up no more than a Roman horse harness. Over 1,500 pieces have been found in a private field in Staffordshire, amounting to over 5kg in gold and 1.3kg in silver.
A massive haul of more than 10,000 Roman coins crammed inside a buried clay pot has been unearthed by an amateur metal detecting enthusiast - on his first ever treasure hunt, and this only a few days after it was announced the Vale of York Hoard was purchased by the British Museum. The silver and bronze 'nummi' coins, dating from between 240 AD and 320 AD, were discovered in a farmer's field near Shrewsbury, in Shropshire, last month. Experts say the coins have spent an estimated 1,700 years underground. The stunning collection of coins, most of which were found inside the broken brown pot, was uncovered by Nick Davies during a search of land in the Shrewsbury area - just a month after he took up the hobby of metal detecting.
An important Viking hoard of jewels and coins unearthed in England by a father-and-son team of treasure hunters in 2007 has been acquired by the British Museum and the Yorkshire Museum in York. It will go on display next month. The Vale of York hoard - previously known as the Harrogate hoard - is valued at 1.1 million pounds ($1.8 million) and is at least 1,000 years old. It includes objects from Afghanistan, Ireland, Russia and Scandinavia, underlining the global spread of cultural contacts during medieval times.
The York Museums Trust in York, northern England, and the British Museum in London bought the treasure, which they say is the most important find of its kind in Britain for 160 years, for £1,082,800.
The first pieces of the Staffordshire Hoard were found in early July 2009 by Mr Terry Herbert while he was metal detecting in a field in southern Staffordshire. In total over 1,500 complete artefacts and fragments were discovered.
As 
If seems that Britain (the Hoard made it to 'most viewed' on the BBC website today) - and Heritage Key (mine is definitely not the first blogpost on the topic) - can't get enough of the Mercian Treasure baptised 'the Staffordshire Hoard'. Realising what an incredible find this is - or standard archaeological procedure? - Birmingham University Archaeology published the actual unearthing of 
