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Cheech
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 Posted: Fri Sep 25, 2009 5:16 pm Post subject: Eureka |
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http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/staffordshire/8272058.stm
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The UK's largest haul of Anglo-Saxon treasure has been discovered buried in a field in Staffordshire.
Experts say the collection of 1,500 gold and silver pieces, which may date to the 7th Century, is unparalleled in size and worth "a seven-figure sum".
It has been declared treasure by South Staffordshire coroner Andrew Haigh, meaning it belongs to the Crown.
Terry Herbert, who found it on farmland using a metal detector, said it "was what metal detectorists dream of". It could take more than a year for it to be valued.
(It is) absolutely the equivalent of finding a new Lindisfarne Gospels or Book of Kells Leslie Webster
Analysis: Hoard lights up Dark Ages In pictures: Hoard uncovered
BBC History: The Anglo-Saxons The Staffordshire hoard contains about 5kg of gold and 2.5kg of silver, making it far bigger than the Sutton Hoo discovery in 1939 when 1.5kg of Anglo-Saxon gold was found near Woodbridge in Suffolk. Leslie Webster, former keeper at the British Museum's Department of Prehistory and Europe, said: "This is going to alter our perceptions of Anglo-Saxon England as radically, if not more so, as the Sutton Hoo discoveries. "(It is) absolutely the equivalent of finding a new Lindisfarne Gospels or Book of Kells."
The Book of Kells and Lindisfarne Gospels are intricately illuminated manuscripts of the four New Testament Gospels dating from the 9th and 8th Centuries.
'Just unbelievable'
Mr Herbert, 55, of Burntwood in Staffordshire, who has been metal detecting for 18 years, came across the hoard as he searched land belonging to a farmer friend over five days in July. The exact location has not been disclosed.
"I have this phrase that I say sometimes; 'spirits of yesteryear take me where the coins appear', but on that day I changed coins to gold," he said.
"I don't know why I said it that day but I think somebody was listening and directed me to it. |
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Old Judge Creek
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Joined: 16 Nov 2002
Posts: 14348
Location: Central California & 1881 Ranch Nevada
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| Posted: Fri Dec 25, 2009 9:33 am Post subject: |
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NEAT-O!
Our local Treasure Hunt club here has several members that every year fly to Great Britain and detect for treasure. The best part is they get to keep what they find within the (rather liberal) boundries of the Antiquities Law there.
In 2008 one of the guys struck paydirt there in the form of a few gold coins. IIRC: it took another year to clear the govermental channels and be delivered to him here in the US.
I can only imagine the untold riches yet top be discovered in Gerat Britain.
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OJC - DCMG #1
Every time I see the Compass and Square I am reminded of the man I aspire to be. |
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Snapshot Katie
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Joined: 07 Nov 2007
Posts: 222
Location: Hank Dodge's Place
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Manny
Joined: 09 Jul 2005
Posts: 1886
Location: The Steel Valley, Y-town Ohio
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| Posted: Fri Dec 25, 2009 9:30 pm Post subject: |
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It's cool that he found it, but the part that bugs me is where it says that the local coroner declared that it belongs to the crown, IE: the government. Sounds like this poor guy is going to be left holding a big bag of nothing. No wonder folks loot and desecrate historical finds if this is what happens.
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D.Koontz in "Lightning" |
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