AN UNEMPLOYED man using a metal detector in a recently ploughed field in England has found the greatest-ever trove of Anglo-Saxon treasure, including 1,000 pieces of finely crafted gold and silver which have left experts in tears at their sight.
The discovery was made in south Staffordshire in July by 55-year-old Terry Herbert, but remained secret until yesterday when it was declared as treasure belonging to the Crown.
The find will make millionaires of Mr Herbert and the farmer who owns the land, although the British Museum yesterday conceded that it will be difficult to put a value on the hoard, already dubbed “The Staffordshire Hoard”. The farmer, a friend of Mr Herbert who had given him permission to trawl his lands, is not to be identified in a bid to stop his lands being overwhelmed by treasure-hunters, the authorities have decided.
The 7th-century treasures from the ancient kingdom of Mercia are believed to be booty which was stripped from the corpses of royal and aristocratic warriors and then, for reasons unknown, buried in land near Lichfield and forgotten.
Kevin Leahy, a medievalist who examines properly disclosed finds made by treasure-hunters, said experts had been in awe: “We were in awe of this material – the responsibility of bringing something like this home was overwhelming.” The haul includes jewellery made in Babylon – far away from Dark Ages Britain – pommel caps, helmets, bracelets with Biblical inscriptions, and swords hilts.
The taking of the sword hilts is described in Beowulf, the epic Anglo-Saxon poem translated by poet Seamus Heaney. “I think it is the equivalent of head-hunting. I don’t think they were taken off people who were still alive,” said Dr Leahy.
The Staffordshire find, comprising 5kg of gold and 2.5kg of silver, dwarfs one made in 1939 at Sutton Hoo in East Anglia which then helped to change centuries-old perceptions of the Dark Ages.
Mr Herbert said the artefacts had been so close to the surface that some helmets had been hit by tractors: “It’s like winning the lottery. I was glad to get rid of them. It’s too much of a burden for me.”
Mr Herbert spent five days scanning the lands and ended up dreaming of gold in his sleep because he was finding so much of it. He said: “The hairs went up on the back of my head” on hearing the artefacts compared to those of Tutankhamun’s tomb in Egypt.
Describing the hoard as bigger than Sutton Hoo, Leslie Webster, former keeper at the British Museum’s Department of Prehistory and Europe, said: “It is absolutely the equivalent of finding a new Lindisfarne Gospels, or the Book of Kells.” So far, 1,345 pieces have been examined by experts, although several hundred are known to be held inside 56 clods of earth which were taken from the site and which have only been X-rayed to date.