Sharon's Antiquities Blog

Have you ever heard of the story of the Staffordshire Hoard? 

It's okay if you haven't.  I was thinking about it today though and was stirred to share it with my readers.  After all, this is a collectible antiquities blog sprinkled with a dose or two of archaeology thrown in for good measure.

Imagine if you will what it might have been like on a July 2009 morning, just a solitary man with a metal detector trying your luck in a friend's field out in the British countryside.

Does a metal detector make an extra loud beep when it hovers over 3,500 separate pieces of gold and silver adorned with precious stones and worked into intricate masterpieces by goldsmiths of centuries past?  I guess only Terry Herbert really knows.  He was alone at the time and since the Staffordshire Hoard has since been dubbed the largest hoard of Anglo-Saxon gold ever found, only he really knows.

Glimpse Into The Past

The Staffordshire Hoar, besides being examples of artistic mastery, also tell us a bit about the men who owned them and to whom they truly meant something.  Incredibly detailed sword hilt fittings, helmet parts, and various items suited to the tasks of a warrior.   Spoils of war in times past, stripped from kings, warriors and religious men alike who died in battle and to the victors went the spoils.

There are so many possible stories of how this bounty of war came to be buried out on a lonely hill top for centuries.  An equally interesting question is what happened to the person or people who never returned to retrieve it?

Learn more about the Staffordshire Hoard