Bronze Age Archives - Regton Metal Detectors

2,500 years old gold artefacts unearthed in Staffordshire

28 February 201728 February 2017 Regton Detectors Leave a comment

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.

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.

Bronze Age Gold Unearthed in Denmark

9 July 20159 July 2015 Regton Detectors 4 Comments

COPENHAGEN, DENMARK—Some 2,000 spirals made of gold have been unearthed in a field in south-western Zealand, where four gold rings and six gold bowls have been found in the past. The spirals date to the Bronze Age, between 900 and 700 B.C. “Maybe the spirals were fastened to the threads lining a hat or parasol. Maybe they were woven into hair or embroidered on a ceremonial garb. The fact is that we do not know, but I am inclined to believe that they were part of a priest-king’s garb or part of some head-wear, said Flemming Kaul of the Danish National Museum press release. The site has now yielded the most gold jewellery and other artefacts by weight from the northern European Bronze Age. “The sun was one of the holy symbols in the Bronze Age and gold was presumably seen as having some sort of particular magic power. It is coloured like the sun, it shines like the sun, and because gold lasts forever, it was also seen as containing some of the sun’s power,” Kaul said.

Besides the four gold rings that triggered the excavation, six other large and heavy gold rings have been found in the same area. And in the 1800s some local farmers found six gold vessels at Borgbjerg Banke, located some 500 meters away. The rings weigh together 3.5 kg, and the bowls and beakers more than a kilogram, so it is one of the largest gold finds from the Bronze Age in Northern Europe. It shows that the place had a special significance for the Bronze Age people when they chose to sacrifice several kilos of gold.

Source: http://archaeology.org

Farmer finds 2,500 years old gold bracelets

25 June 201525 June 2015 Regton Detectors Leave a comment

Farmer finds 2,500 years old gold bracelets near Jaslo in the Subcarpathia, Poland.

Gold artefacts initially dated to 1600-400 BC have been unearthed by a farmer near Jaslo in the Subcarpathia. The objects have been taken to the Sub-Carpathian Museum in Krosno. During field work near Jasło, a farmer found three gold bracelets tied with golden wire. He then informed the archaeological service. Archaeologists now intend to study the site because they want to determine whether it was a discovery of a treasure, or perhaps the remains of a burial ground, as Jan Gancarski said. Mr Gancarski, director of the Sub-Carpathian Museum in Krosno, believes the objects probably originated from behind the Carpathians, as at the time, the Carpathian foothills were inhabited by people who came here from behind the Carpathians.

In the 1990s, Mr Gancarski and his team discovered more than 160 thousand historical artefacts and objects in the area of Jasło; the oldest date back to 4000 BC. It was then established that in the beginning of the Bronze Age a fortified settlement had been built in Trzcinica near Jasło. It was surrounded by an embankment with a palisade. In the years 2000-1650 BC it was inhabited by the population of the Pleszów group of the Mierzanowice culture, which remained under the strong Transcarpathian influence.

On the other hand, between 1650 and the year 1350 BC the area was inhabited by Transcarpathian population of the Ottomány culture with a high level of civilization. Between the eighth and eleventh centuries, Trzcinica was the central stronghold of one of the tribes living in Małopolska at the time. It was probably destroyed in the fire at the end of the reign of Mieszko II (1025–1031).

Source: http://www.archaeology.wiki/blog/

Gold and silver treasure discovered in Gloucestershire

29 May 201529 May 2015 Regton Detectors Leave a comment

Historical jewellery which has lain undetected for centuries has been unearthed across the county. A Bronze Age hoard of gold bracelets from the Forest of Dean, an early medieval gold finger ring dug up in a village south of Gloucestershire, a 350-year-old silver thimble found in the Stroud district, and a post-Medieval silver-gilt spoon will all be the subject of coroner’s treasure trove hearings in June and July.

Their value is not yet known.

Unless a Gloucestershire museum buys treasure trove items, they will remain in the British museum collection. Treasure trove is an amount of money or coin, gold, silver, plate, or bullion found hidden underground where the treasure seems old enough for it to be presumed that the true owner is dead and the heirs undiscoverable.

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Socketed Knife

23 April 201523 April 2015 Regton Detectors Leave a comment

Bronze Age socketed knife unearthed by our friend Les, who is using an XP Deus metal detector.

Ancient gold artefacts unearthed in Wales

27 March 201527 March 2015 Regton Detectors 2 Comments

Two gold artefacts thought to be around 3,000 years old have been found near Wrexham. The Late Bronze Age hoard of two ‘lock’ gold rings were discovered in the Community of Rosset. The wearer would’ve been a person of wealth and status within Late Bronze Age Society, between 10000 and 800BC. In terms of their use, archaeologists aren’t certain whether they were used as ear-rings or worn to gather locks of hair, as the name suggests. In Wales, lock-rings have previously been found at Gaerwen, Anglesey, the Great Orme, Conwy and Newport, Pembrokeshire. This largely coastal pattern hints at possible trading and communication links between Late Bronze Age communities living in Wales and Ireland.

Metal detectorist finds Bronze Age settlement using Google Earth

23 October 201423 October 2014 Regton Detectors Leave a comment

A metal detecting enthusiast has amazed archaeologists by uncovering a historic Bronze Age settlement – using just Google Earth. Canny Howard Jones put aside usual methods of finding ancient communities and used the internet instead. He scanned satellite images for the sort of terrain that would have offered food, water and shelter for a prehistoric settlement. Howard used Google’s overheard mapping site to zoom in on fields and farmland before pinpointing a spot in South Hams, Devon. The former Royal Marine then sought permission from the local landowner before heading down there to scour for remains. To his amazement he soon unearthed old flint tools, pottery shards and scraps of metal thought to date back 5,000 years.

Your Finds

27 May 201427 May 2014 Regton Detectors Leave a comment

We are pleased to introduce a new section where YOU can share your treasures with other metal detecting hobbyists.
If you would like to share your “treasures” with others on our blog or have problem with identification, please send us your pictures as a private message on our FB page or e-mail to media@regton.com and we will add them to our gallery. Add a short description and information what detector you use and in which part of the UK/World you are detecting.

May we present you with the first item:

Bronze Age arrow head, found by Gary who is detecting with XP Deus Metal Detector.

anglo saxon silver artefact metal detector

Historic Wrexham finds declared ‘treasures’

27 May 201427 May 2014 Regton Detectors Leave a comment

An Anglo-Saxon strap end, Bronze Age axe fragments and coins dating to the English Civil War are among several items declared as treasure by a coroner. An inquest in Wrexham yesterday also heard other finds dug up in North-East Wales included a 16th or 17th century silver hawking ring, a 17th century thimble and a 16th century silver dress clasp.
As a general rule, under the Treasure Act, for items to be declared treasure they must be at least 10% precious metal and more than 300 years old. The inquest heard two of the items, the silver coins and decorative silver strap end, were found by metal detecting enthusiast Chris Morris, of Pantymwyn in Flintshire. He found the strap end on farmland near Mold while out hunting for historical finds in May 2012.

Anglo-Saxon silver strap end

Metal Detectors – Most Magnificent Treasures Found.

23 May 201423 May 2014 Regton Detectors Leave a comment

Treasure! The vaults of museums around the world are filled with precious antiquities, but who knows how many historical gems are still out there waiting to be unearthed? This list shows, that anyone can strike it lucky… even you. So grab your metal detector and get searching. Advanced modern technology and availability of equipment made it possible for metal detecting hobbyists to find bulk of significant treasure. We would like to present you with 6 most significant UK finds of the past fifty years 5 of which were found with metal detectors.

Ringlemere Cup, found in Sandwich, Kent in 2001 by metal detecting fan Cliff Bradshaw
Value: £270,000

Ringlemere gold hoard metal detecting

Ringlemere Cup was only the second specimen of its type found Britain. The first gold cup was discovered in 1837.
These gold containers date from the very early Bronze Age (2300 BC – 4000 years ago). They are comperable to examples discovered around the Mediterranean, indicating relation between the Cornish and Greek. The cup was purchased from Mr Bradshaw by the British Museum for £270,000.

Fishpool Hoard, found in Ravenshead, Nottinghamshire in 1966
Value: £300,000

Workers digging on a building site accidentally uncovered the largest hoard of medieval coins ever found in Britain. This astonishing cache dates from the 15th century. It included 1,237 gold coins, four rings, four specimens of jewellery, and two pieces of gold chain.
The hoard was probably buried in haste at some time between winter 1463 and summer 1464, perhaps by someone fleeing south after the Battle of Hexham in May 1464, in the first stages of England’s civil war between aristocratic factions, the War of the Roses.
The heart-shaped brooch is engraved with the phrase “je suys vostre sans de partier” (I am yours wholly). Hoard was purchased by the British Museum for around £300,000.

Frome Roman Coin Hoard found in Frome, Somerset in 2010 by metal detecting enthusiast Dave Crisp
Value: £500,000

Mr Crisp was hoping to find a coin or two during that detecting expedition. What he discovered exceeded all his expectations.
The Frome Hoard is a collection of 52,503 Roman coins. The coins were contained in a ceramic pot 45 cm in diameter, and date from AD 253 to 305. Most of the coins are made from debased silver or bronze. The hoard is one of the largest ever found in Britain. It contains the largest group of coins issued during the reign of Carausius, ever found. Carausius ruled Britain independently from 286 to 293 was the first Roman emperor to strike coins.

Silverdale Hoard found in Harrogate, North Yorkshire in 2007 metal detecting hobbyist David Whelan and his son Andrew.
Value: £1,000,000

After 20 minutes of detecting in a field that Mr Whelan had previously searched several times before without finding anything more significant than a Tudor half-groat, he got a signal. Buried about 16 inches deposited together in and under a lead container there was a Viking treasure dated around 900AD.
The hoard consists of a variety of silver items including 27 coins, 10 arm-rings, 2 finger-rings, 14 ingots, 6 broach fragments, a fine wire braid and 141 fragments of arm-rings and ingots which had been chopped up and turned into hack silver, which was used as a form of currency in Viking times. Together they weigh a little over two pounds (1 kg). The hoard includes Arabic, Anglo-Saxon, Anglo-Viking and Viking coins. They date to around AD 900 and include coins of Alfred the Great and the Danish-ruled Kingdom of Northumbria.

Hoxne Hoard found in Hoxne, Suffolk in 1992 by Peter Whatling and Eric Lawes while searching for the lost hammer.
Value: £ 1,750,000

The Hoxne hoard consists of over 15,000 gold and silver coins, gold jewellery and numerous small items of silver tableware, including pepper pots, ladles and spoons. Also found were traces of a large wooden chest and smaller caskets with tiny silver padlocks, into which the treasure had been carefully secreted. Hoxone Hoard is Roman Britain, buried in the 5th century AD.

Staffordshire Hoard found in Hammerwich, Staffordshire in 2009 by metal detectorist Terry Herbert
Value: £3,285,000

The Staffordshire Hoard is the largest hoard of Anglo-Saxon gold and silver metalwork yet found. It consists of over 3,500 items comprising up to 5kg of gold and 1.3kg of silver.
Items are nearly all martial in character and there are no objects specific to female uses. The artefacts have tentatively been dated to the 7th or 8th centuries, placing the origin of the items in the time of the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Mercia.

Total value of the above treasures: £7,105,000

Now take your detectors head off to the country and find that magnificent treasure. We wish you good luck. Maybe next story will be about you.