Warrior Treasure: the Staffordshire Hoard in Anglo-Saxon England

ONLINE - Thursday 9th November 2023 at 7pm 

When the Staffordshire Hoard was discovered in 2009, it caused an international sensation. Nearly 6 kilos of gold and silver objects, many decorated with blood-red garnets, make it the largest hoard of Anglo-Saxon precious metal ever discovered, and unparalleled in scale and type. Buried in an unprepossessing field in the West Midlands, the discovery- the most significant Saxon discovery since Sutton Hoo in 1939- took everyone, experts and the general public alike, by surprise.

This talk tells the remarkable story of the discovery of the Staffordshire Hoard, and the large-scale research project which followed. A decade of investigation now allows key questions about the Hoard to be considered: how did the golden ornaments come together, where were they made and what happened to their elite owners, who might have owned and buried them, never to return, and when did it all happen?  The talk places the hoard within the context of the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Mercia, and discusses how it relates to the cycle of conflict that history records across 7th-century Britain, as rival pagan and Christian kingdoms fought for supremacy.

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Image courtesy of the Birmingham Museums Trust

Dr Jenni Butterworth

Dr Jenni Butterworth

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