bronze-age-gold-artefacts

2,500 years old gold artefacts unearthed in Staffordshire

Two metal detectorists unearthed artefacts which could be the oldest Iron Age gold discovered in Britain. Mark Hambleton made the find with Joe Kania on Staffordshire Moorlands farmland. The three necklaces and bracelet, named the Leekfrith Iron Age Torcs, are believed to be about 2,500 years old. Julia Farley of the British Museum said that this unique find is of international importance.

bronze-age-gold-artefacts

Dr Farley, the museum’s curator of British and European Iron Age collections, said: “It dates to around 400-250 BC and is probably the earliest Iron Age gold work ever discovered in Britain. The torcs were probably worn by wealthy and powerful women, perhaps people from the Continent who had married into the local community. Piecing together how these objects came to be carefully buried in a Staffordshire field will give us an invaluable insight into life in Iron Age Britain.”

The four torcs were found separately, about 1m apart, buried near the surface in Leekfrith last December. The artefacts have been handed to the Portable Antiquities Scheme, which is part of Birmingham Museums. An inquest will decide whether the pieces are treasure and they will then be provisionally valued. The friends said they would share any proceeds with the family living where the finds were made.

 

Read more: http://www.bbc.co.uk/

Treasure-cufflink-metal-detecting

Metal detectorist unearthed XVII century treasure

Part of a silver cufflink dating back to the 17th century has been unearthed by a metal detector enthusiast on farmland in Messingham. North Lincolnshire coroner Paul Kelly – at a treasure trove hearing in Scunthorpe – declared the rare find was treasure. The silver disc decorated with a pair of hearts beneath a crown was found by Andrew Mitchell, from Rotherham, at Lowmoor Farm on September 20 last year.

Treasure-cufflink-metal-detecting

Experts from the British Museum reported to Mr Kelly that the disc dated to between 1662 and 1700 when the fashion for cufflinks to fasten sleeves developed. The crown-and-hearts motif might have celebrated the marriage of Charles II and Catherine of Braganza in 1662. It was also thought the Messingham treasure had royalist and/or Catholic associations.

Under the Treasure Act 1996, finders of objects which constitute a legally defined term of treasure are obliged to report their find to their local coroner within 14 days. If it is declared to be treasure, then the finder must offer the item for sale to a museum at a price set by an independent board of antiquities experts known as the Treasure Valuation Committee. Only if a museum expresses no interest in the item, or is unable to purchase it, can the finder retain it.

Read more: http://www.scunthorpetelegraph.co.uk/