metal detector

Hark! As you’ll have spotted from the preponderance of tacky lights in your local high street and abundance of dodgy perfume adverts on your TV screens, Christmas is approaching. Deck the whatchmacallit with that stuff, and tra la la la la etc.

You may be wracking your brains trying to come up with suitable stocking fillers for youngsters right now. Forget X-Boxes, selection boxes and, um, other types of boxes – here at Heritage Key, we would naturally recommend presents of an ancient world or archaeological theme – there are plenty of great ones out there, from Lego Indiana Jones, to Valley of the Kings board games, beginners metal detectors and dig-your-own-dinosaur kits.

Here’s our top ten, a few of which, judging by the enthusiasm at Heritage Key for Playmobil Egypt, might do as prezzies for young-at-heart adults too.

The latest metal detector haul may be its most spectacular: a Scots amateur has stumbled upon a stash of Iron Age gold worth an estimated £1million. The four 'Torc' headbands, similar to those famously worn by Iceni Queen Boudicca 2,000 years ago, are said to be in 'perfect condition'. Though the exact field they were found in is unkown, it is thought to be near the historical city of Stirling.

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 biggest hoard of gold ever found in Britain has brought tears to the eyes of experts and amateurs alike. Terry Herbert stumbled upon the huge trove of Anglo-Saxon treasure - worth at least £1 million - while metal detecting in a Shropshire field.

Herbert isn't the only amateur to have hit the jackpot. Several finds by metal detectorists have stunned archaeologists and proven that the hobby can have surprisingly spectacular - and lucrative - results.

Got a metal detector? Into archaeology? Lost your, ahem, manhood? Then the Manhood Search and Recovery Society is for you – a newly-formed body promoting conscientious metal detecting in the West Sussex area of England, as well as the important role it can play in archaeology and, with it, local history. In the long term, the society aims to swell its ranks to the point where it can assistant in major archaeological digs.

“Responsible metal detectorists play a big part in our understanding of the region and our place,” organisation founder Steve Lawrence told the Midhurst and Petworth Observer. “Our first meeting has already attracted interest and members.”

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.