The Staffordshire Hoard to go on Display
The discovery of this hoard, the largest Anglo-Saxon Treasure find ever, has been announced at Birmingham Museum, following a coroner’s inquest. The hoard is quite unique as it has well over 1500 gold and silver objects. It is about to go on display and be valued.
You will have read about this extraordinary find in the press, seen it on television and watched videos on the web – and if you’re really keen, you’ll have looked at 636 photos of the artefacts on the Portable Antiquities Flickr pages, along with the complete list of finds on the official website.
It¹s all out there, with comment from Anglo-Saxon experts Leslie Webster (Times), Kevin Leahy (Independent) and Helen Geake (Daily Mail) – and there’ll be more to come. It will be years before anything definitive can be said about it: much of it is still hidden in lumps of soil, only half of the Latin inscription has been read (the rest is hidden inside a fold of metal) and many of Europe’s leading specialists in the area have yet to even see it. What else can there be to say now?
You’ll find the answer in the new British Archaeology magazine, out 9 October.
Leslie Webster said:
…this is going to alter our perceptions of Anglo-Saxon England in the seventh and early eighth century as radically, if not moreso, as the 1939 Sutton Hoo discoveries did; it will make historians and literary scholars review what their sources tell us, and archaeologists and art-historians rethink the chronology of metalwork and manuscripts; and it will make us all think again about rising (and failing) kingdoms and the expression of regional identities in this period, the complicated transition from paganism to Christianity, the conduct of battle and the nature of fine metalwork production – to name only a few of the many huge issues it raises.Absolutely the metalwork equivalent of finding a new Lindisfarne Gospels or Book of Kells.
The researchers have put together a new website to document the discovery and the interpretative work by the team of experts from the Portable Antiquities Scheme, the University of Birmingham, Stoke City Council, English Heritage, Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery, Staffordshire County Council, The Potteries Museum and the British Museum. The website also features images and hoard list. Photographs of the hoard are available through the Portable Antiquities Flickr Stream.
A selection from the hoard will be on display in Birmingham Museum from Friday 25.9.09 – Tuesday 13.10.09 and it will come to the British Museum on Wednesday 14.10.09 for valuation.
A consortium of museums in the West Midlands, including the University of Birmingham, Stoke and perhaps Staffordshire County Council, hope to acquire the hoard.
See also
- The Staffordshire Hoard website
- Portable Antiquities Scheme and news page
- PAS Press Release (PDF 96KB)
- PAS Summary (PDF 110KB)
- Press Pack (PDF 580KB)
- CBA Portable Antiquities pages
In the News:
Local News
- Birmingham City Council Newsroom, contact Geoff Coleman, tel 0121 303 3501:
- Council leader vows to do justice to the Staffordshire Hoard
- Archaeologist thrilled by Staffordshire Hoard of Anglo-Saxon treasure, Birmingham Post
BBC News
- BBC News Story 24.9.09, which even made the BBC front page!
- Local History: Staffordshire
- In Pictures: Anglo-Saxon treasures uncovered
- Hoard highlight of 18-year hobby
Newspapers
- Experts wept at sight of Anglo-Saxon gold, Times
- The delicate, mysterious spoils of a 7th-century war, Independent by Dr Kevin Leahy 25 Sep
- The field of gold, Daily Mail
- Anglo-Saxon Treasure Hoard of Gold, The Guardian
- Largest hoard of Anglo-Saxon gold officially declared treasure, Telegraph
- Largest Ever Anglo-Saxon Gold Find Unearthed with Metal Detector, Sky News
- Largest ever hoard of Anglo-Saxon gold found with photo gallery, Metro
- Man strikes gold with record haul, The Sun
