Britain's Secret Treasures

by Mary-Ann Ochota

  “In 1839 an aggressive and brutal conflict known as the First Opium War began between China and the British Empire”

  The flow of merchants, missionaries, soldiers and diplomats between the two countries accelerated after the First Opium War, and throughout the vast global networks of the British Empire. Barrow was a thriving and prosperous port, and would have been a very cosmopolitan place. New railways, steel works and shipbuilding yards may have attracted labourers from overseas, and it’s possible that a Chinese worker or servant travelled to Barrow with the coins and failed to retrieve them before heading home. Perhaps they never went home, and instead settled in Cumbria permanently.

  This isn’t the only hoard of Chinese coins found in Britain, but they are rare, especially outside London. This mysterious treasure was generously donated by Dave Taylor to the Dock Museum in Barrow – hopefully further study will shed more light on the relationship between Cumbria and China 150 years ago.

  See also:

  French Forgery Hoard

  Spanish-American Gold Doubloons

  Staffordshire Hoard

  The hoard that captured the public’s heart

  Date: probably 640–700AD, Anglo-Saxon

  Where, when and how found: Staffordshire; 2009; metal detecting. A further 81 associated pieces found in 2012 during a metal detecting survey.

  Finder: Terry Herbert

  Official valuation: £3,285,000

  Where is it now? Star finds on display at Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery and the Potteries Museum, Stoke-on-Trent

  www.staffordshirehoard.org.uk

  Help: Fundraising to pay for the cleaning, conservation and study of the hoard is ongoing

  www.staffordshirehoard.org.uk/donate

  Terry Herbert is an experienced metal detectorist and a member of his local detecting club. Over the years he’d reported various finds to his local Finds Liaison Officer, but he hadn’t found anything that had rewritten the history books. Then, in July 2009, while detecting in a ploughed field in Staffordshire, his machine gave the signal that would change his life.

  Over five days of detecting, Terry found thousands of pieces of Anglo-Saxon gold, silver and jewels mixed up in the loose plough-soil. In total, the field contained more than 3,500 pieces of treasure, made from 5.1kg of gold and 1.8kg of silver. Terry reported his discovery to his local Finds Liaison Officer, the Coroner was informed and an immediate security clampdown on the site was imposed. This find was too significant to risk illegal detectorists hearing about it and raiding the site.

  An excavation confirmed that the hoard had been scattered by ploughing and that there was no obvious focus to the deposit. A geophysical survey failed to find any features in the field that could relate to the hoard – the site was a mystery. When the field was ploughed again in November 2012 a metal detector survey was carried out by an experienced team of detectorists who had taken part in surveys of battlefield sites. They found hundreds of pieces of metal of which eighty-one, found in the area of the original discovery, were deemed part of the original hoard. Most of the new finds were small, but there were some significant discoveries, including the matching partner to a helmet cheek-piece found by Terry.

  Weapons and Warfare: the contents of the hoard

  The strange thing about the Staffordshire Hoard is that it’s almost entirely made up of ‘war-gear’ – items associated with warriors. Pieces of helmet, sword hilts and fittings, pommel caps from swords and seaxes (short single-edged swords), often with garnets inlaid into gold, as well as many items that haven’t yet been identified. Hardly any items are complete – the sword fittings are there, but there’s no evidence of the actual iron blades.

  Other Anglo-Saxon prestige items are conspicuous by their absence: there are no feminine dress fittings, pins, brooches or pendants, which are normally common finds compared to sword fittings. The material in the hoard had been carefully selected.

  Most of the art-work is in a 7th-century style; interlaced, ribbon-like animals cross over each other and their own bodies, biting their tails or each other. The Anglo-Saxons loved patterns which wove these ambiguous animals into complicated knots, and the different designs and animals probably had specific, important meanings. One of the best examples of these animal patterns is on the pair of helmet cheek-pieces. The main part is decorated with bands of biting animals and down the edges there are interlaced snakes. These cheek-pieces are masterpieces of early medieval art and design.

  In addition to the war-gear the hoard contains two (possibly three) Christian crosses, and an intriguing strip of silver. All the crosses had been damaged before burial – the arms of the large cross had been folded together, one limb of the cross-pendant had been broken off and the inscribed strip was probably ripped off a larger object. It’s not known if the crosses were deliberately desecrated or just broken and folded for ease of packing. On each of the two faces of one particular item, an inscribed strip, is a line from the Bible written in Latin (Numbers 10:35) which translates as:

  ‘Rise up, O Lord, and may thy enemies be scattered and those who hate thee be driven from thy face.’

  A precious stone would have been set into one end of the strip, and rivet holes show that it was once attached to something else – perhaps a reliquary box for sacred remains, a bible or a cross.

  Who buried these treasures?

  The archaeological evidence doesn’t suggest this hoard was part of a grave or burial, but it may have been deposited in some kind of ritual offering to the gods, or people may have buried the treasures for safekeeping in troubled times, and for some reason never retrieved them. Whether an offering or a safety deposit, it’s unlikely that all these items came from one original owner. It’s more likely that they were trophies of war, or tribute given to a particular leader or group of elite warriors.

  Around the time the hoard was buried, Staffordshire was part of the kingdom of Mercia – controlled by some of the Anglo-Saxons who had initially come to Britain from modern-day Denmark and Germany after the Romans left around 410AD. These warrior chieftains had control of most of England, living in tribal tensions with other chiefs and fighting with the native Britons and Welsh.

  This was well before the first Vikings arrived – instead, the focus of aggression was towards other Anglo-Saxon kings, and towards suppressing the ‘natives’. In the middle of the 7th century, the time the Staffordshire Hoard was probably deposited, Kings Penda (633–655), Wulfhere (658–675) and Aethelred (675–704) fought numerous ferocious battles with the East Anglian, Northumbrian and Wessex kings, wrestling for power, wealth and territory.

  Penda was the last pagan King of Mercia, and he defeated and killed three Christian kings. The Mercians converted to Christianity around this time and the presence of the folded crosses and inscription strip in the hoard raise intriguing questions about the faith of the people who buried them.

  Splendid as it is, the Staffordshire Hoard doesn’t give us a balanced picture of early medieval royalty. The great ship-burial found at Sutton Hoo in Suffolk in 1939 reveals many of the other treasures an Anglo-Saxon king would have used – fine dress fittings, personal jewellery, cups and bowls for feasting, cooking vessels, a lyre to provide music and, at least if you were near water, a ship. The textiles and organic items have been lost, but it’s clear that these were not primitive barbarians, but members of sophisticated societies that appreciated artistic skill as much as they did the art of war.

  The public response

  When news of the Staffordshire Hoard broke, the public response was unprecedented. The website built by the PAS received 10 million hits in a week. Temporary displays in Birmingham and Stoke-on-Trent were seen by more than 100,000 people. People flew in from around the world to see the treasures, queues went around the block and the museums extended their opening hours to meet visitor demand.

  People were instantly struck by the quality and quantity of the treasures as well as by the romance of the story of a discovery from a long an
d forgotten age. The Treasure Valuation Committee, based on the best advice available, valued the hoard at £3.285 million, an astonishing sum that was shared by Terry and the farmer who owned the land. Almost a million pounds was donated by the public to help the Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery and the Potteries Museum, Stoke-on-Trent, acquire the hoard and keep it in the public museums forever.

  The hoard pieces are still being cleaned and analysed, work that will continue for years. This extraordinary treasure from Staffordshire has, without doubt, shed a brilliant light on what were once known as the Dark Ages.

  See also:

  North West Essex Ring

  Holderness Cross

  NORTH EAST

  MORE THAN ANY OTHER REGION, the treasures from the North East make you imagine moments of battle and defence. Wild country breeds strong people, and there are over 500 buildings with fortifications in Northumberland alone. In an area bordered by exposed and windswept coastline, the gritstone hills of the Pennines, and the deep-rooted cultural border between England and Scotland, the raiders, invaders and adventurers of the North East have left us a fantastic legacy of both buildings and artefacts.

  Highlights include the Roman forts along Hadrian’s Wall, the early Christian coastal settlements like Jarrow and Holy Island (Lindisfarne), the industrial and maritime heritage around Hartlepool, the medieval cathedral city of Durham and the Viking capital, York.

  The area was always a prime target for the Vikings, first lured by the undefended riches in the remote coastal monasteries, and then by the farmland and high peaks, and excellent harbours. The wealth of the Anglo-Scandinavian networks is exquisitely demonstrated by the Vale of York Viking Hoard. But rich and creative cultures thrived across the region for centuries before that. The County Durham River Assemblage and the Cautopates Figurine perfectly demonstrate the ways by which Romans brought their religious practices to newly occupied territories.

  From more unsettled times, the Hadrian’s Wall Coins come from the dangerous and exciting frontier at the end of the Roman Empire; the Alnwick Sword was part of the ceremonial death rites of a high-status warrior; the West Yorkshire Ring Hoard captures a moment of fear, or panic, or triumph, that put four precious rings in the ground never to be retrieved.

  Alnwick Sword

  The ritual killing of a warrior’s sword

  Date: 500–650AD, Anglo-Saxon, Early Medieval

  Where, when and how found: Near Alnwick, Northumberland; 2012; metal detecting

  Finder: Anonymous

  Where is it now? Finds donated to the Great North Museum, Newcastle upon Tyne

  www.twmuseums.org.uk

  The finder of this sword is a local man who discovered a series of Anglo-Saxon artefacts in a field near Alnwick, in Northumberland. He had permission from the landowner to search, and every time he found something, he carefully recorded it with the local Finds Liaison Officer, Rob Collins.

  Most of his initial finds were made of bronze, but looking at the emerging pattern, Rob suggested that the finder keep his eyes out for iron artefacts too – he might be detecting a site that was once an Anglo-Saxon cemetery, and any weapons buried in graves would have been made from iron rather than bronze.

  In August 2012, the finder made a spectacular discovery, even though to the untrained eye, it just looks like a lump of rusty metal. In fact this assemblage of iron artefacts, fused together with rust, reveals the surprising, and intriguing, funeral activities of people around 500–650AD.

  Anglo-Saxons in the north

  In the period following the collapse of the Western Roman Empire, Britain fragmented into a number of smaller kingdoms. Germanic and Scandinavian peoples – the Anglo-Saxons – colonised southern and eastern Britain, but there were always areas in the north and west under the control of native Britons.

  It has always been thought that north England did not have a large Anglo-Saxon population, and the people who were here might not have been the wealthiest or most fashionable. The archaeology of the kingdom of Northumbria is a mix of Anglo-Saxon, native British and Irish traditions – but the finds from this site are forcing the experts to reconsider the importance of the Anglo-Saxons.

  This period in Britain is often called the Dark Ages – after the Western Roman Empire, technological innovation seems to have slowed in some aspects, and economies shrank to more local production and trade. No more Roman villas – instead, round houses, defensive hill forts and smaller, tribal kingdoms. Archaeological evidence shows ‘re-fortification’ of certain sites, where lots of effort was put into improving the defensive structures with new fences and palisades, bigger and higher earth banks, and populations moving into these defended areas from the surrounding countryside.

  The finds

  The main item in the corroded lump is a double-edged iron sword – 37cm of the blade, folded in half so the two broken ends are touching each other. We only have the middle section of the blade – the tang (the section that goes into the handle), the handle and the tip are missing.

  Other iron objects have been pushed into the crease of the folded sword – a short knife in its sheath, another blade or tool higher up, and two other iron fittings have fused to the edges of the blade, suggesting that they were purposely placed alongside the sword when it was deposited.

  As well as rusty iron, the other material present at the findspot was fragmented bone – this was clearly a human burial, even though the acidic soil had eaten away most of the skeleton. The presence of the weapons in the grave, as well as shield fittings found in the area, suggests that this was a high-status, male Anglo-Saxon warrior.

  X-ray analysis of the sword shows that it was made with a technique called ‘pattern-welding’, and probably made of four strands. Anglo-Saxon swords were beautiful things – expert smiths would hammer a ‘plait’ of metal strands into one another in a specific pattern. Heating, hammering, twisting and reheating, the core of the sword would be strong and flexible, and the edges of the sword would stay sharp and straight. That way, you’d have the sharpest and deadliest blade possible, that was the least likely to snap. Pattern-welding also produces a sword blade with amazing swirls in the metal – beautiful, but also symbolically powerful.

  To fold a sword blade in half like this would have required careful but forceful hammering or reheating in a forge. Normally swords found in Anglo-Saxon graves haven’t been destroyed or bent, but just laid with the body. The reason the Alnwick Sword was folded is unclear, but it’s likely to have been a way of ritually ‘killing’ the sword, ensuring it couldn’t be used by anyone else, and sending it to the Afterlife with the warrior.

  Warriors’ weapons

  The early Anglo-Saxon era was a time when weapons were much more than just functional killing-equipment.

  There are many legendary swords from this time, or a little later – an ancient Irish sword carried by legendary heroes, known as Caladbolg; the Norse sword Gram, used by the hero Sigurd, even the French Emperor Charlemagne supposedly had the legendary sword Joyeuse which is still at the Louvre in Paris.

  If a historical King Arthur ever existed, it was around this time – the earliest mentions of him in Welsh describe him carrying a special spear, a shield, and a sword, Caledfwlch, which means something like ‘battle–breach’. Caledfwlch became the Latin Caliburnus which turned into the name we now recognise – Excalibur. Excalibur was said to be able to cut iron as well as it could cut wood, and the sword’s sheath would keep the person wearing it safe from death.

  The relationship between this warrior and his sword was an important one – one that would continue on into the Afterlife, and one that was clearly demonstrated for the whole community to see at the time of the grand funeral. With his sword ‘killed’ and his body laid out, the warrior’s power and importance was celebrated in death, and by association, his family and friends would benefit too.

  Further excavations will hopefully reveal more information about the warrior and his grave site, as well as the wider lan
dscape. The finder has generously donated the objects he’s found to the Great North Museum so that they can be studied and appreciated by all.

  See also:

  Hadrian’s Wall Coins

  Tamlaght Hoard

  Staffordshire Hoard

  Durham Cloth Seals

  Quality control from the 16th and 17th centuries

  Date: 1550–1650, Post Medieval

  Where, when and how found: River Wear, Durham; ongoing; scuba diving

  Finder: Gary Bankhead

  Where is it now? Collection held at Durham University Archaeology Department

  www.dur.ac.uk/archaeology

  Get involved: Nautical Archaeology Society

  www.nauticalarchaeologysociety.org

  British Sub Aqua Club

  www.bsac.com

  Gary Bankhead is a professional fire-fighter and keen underwater archaeologist. His long hours of training using breathing apparatus in smoke-filled buildings have prepared him perfectly for the long hours using scuba gear in the freezing cold, low-visibility, River Wear, in County Durham.

  Gary has scoured the ancient riverbed for years, and amassed an extraordinary collection of over 3,000 items, including toys, coins, pipes and pistols. One set of items in Gary’s unique collection tells an intriguing story about trade 400 years ago, and it’s so important that he’s now begun a post-graduate research project at Durham University Archaeology Department to investigate them further.