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The Staffordshire Hoard

 

The largest ever find of Anglo-Saxon gold treasure has been unearthed in a Staffordshire field.

The finds, known as The Staffordshire Hoard, comprise in excess of 1,500 individual items, mostly gold, with some silver. Many are decorated with precious stones.

Most of the treasure appears to date from the seventh century, and the supreme quality of the craftsmanship on many items indicates royal ownership. The hoard includes a strip of gold which bears a biblical inscription in Latin, quoting chapter 10 verse 35 of the Book of Numbers: “Rise up, o Lord, and may thy enemies be dispersed and those who hate thee be driven from thy face”. The finds also include two, possibly three, gold crosses which have been folded possibly to fit into a small space prior to burial. There are also more than 150 sword pommel caps and hilt collars, and parts from several highly decorated helmets including a beautiful figure of an animal which possibly formed a helmet crest.

The vast majority of the items are martial – war materials from the battlefield. The artefacts were discovered in what had been the heartland of the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Mercia which was militarily aggressive and expansionist during the seventh century under kings Penda, Wulfhere and Aethelred. Some items are decorated in what is known as ‘Anglo-Saxon Style II’ which consists of strange animals, interlaced around each other, with long intertwined jaws. Many objects are inlaid with garnets.

The hoard contains approximately 5kgs of gold and 2.5kg of silver. Sutton Hoo, the world-famous Anglo-Saxon burial ground in South East Suffolk, had 1.66kg of gold.

The hoard was first discovered in July by metal detectorist Terry Herbert on private farmland, with the written consent of the landowner.  Stoke-on-Trent City Council is working jointly with  Birmingham City Council to  acquire the hoard, and is working with a number of other parties to ensure the hoard remains local and accessible to the public. 

The council’s museums service is the repository for archaeological remains recovered from across Staffordshire, including the area where the hoard was discovered. The Potteries Museum and Art Gallery holds a designated collection of archaeological material that is widely acknowledged as being of both national and international importance and the best in the region.

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