Anglo Saxon Treasure Found

Fellow appraiser Marcy Molinaro sent me a Hughes Net article on the recent discovery of a large trove of treasure recently found in England. According to the article, an amateur treasure hunter with a metal detector found the buried collection of Anglo Saxon which dates to around the 7th century. According to British archeologists, the treasure included assorted gold and silver sword decorations, crosses and other items. The article notes the discover sheds new information on the 7th century period, so the discovery is considered important from both a treasurer seeking standpoint as well as from a historical perspective.

Hughes Net states

Archaeologist Kevin Leahy, who catalogued the find, said the stash appeared to be war loot and included dozens of pommel caps — decorative elements attached to the knobs of sword handles. He noted that "Beowulf" contains a reference to warriors stripping the pommels of their enemies' weapons as mementoes.

But much other Anglo-Saxon literature and artwork has been lost through warfare, looting, upheavals and the passage of time, leaving scanty evidence for scholars of the period.

Bland said the hoard was unearthed in what was once Mercia, one of five main Anglo-Saxon kingdoms, and is thought to date to 675-725 AD.

The hoard consists of at least 650 items of gold and 530 silver objects weighing more than 2.2 pounds (1 kilo), along with some copper alloy, garnets and glass.

A total of 1,345 items have been examined by experts and 56 lumps of earth were found to contain metal artifacts detected by an X-ray machine, meaning the total will likely rise to about 1,500.

Most of the objects are ornaments for weapons and other military artifacts, some inlaid with precious stones.

"I think wealth of this kind must have belonged to a king but we cannot say that for absolute certain," Bland said.

Leslie Webster, the former curator of Anglo-Saxon archaeology at the British Museum, said the amount of gold uncovered — about 11 pounds (5 kilograms) — suggested that early medieval England was a far wealthier place than previously believed.

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