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52-459: The Staffordshire Hoard is the largest hoard of Anglo-Saxon gold and silver metalwork yet found. It consists of almost 4,600 items and metal fragments, amounting to a total of 5.1 kg (11 lb) of gold , 1.4 kg (3 lb) of silver and some 3,500 pieces of garnet cloisonné jewellery. It is described by the historian Cat Jarman as "possibly the finest collection of early medieval artefacts ever discovered". The hoard

104-494: A cross rather than a true crucifix ; these began to be made specifically for altars in the late 11th century, and became more common from the 12th century, though they may have been expensive at first. By the start of the 13th century, treatises by Pope Innocent III expected there to be a cross between two candles on the altar during the Mass . This period was also the era when candlesticks , also probably carried in procession at

156-619: A connection to Peada , briefly king of Mercia in 655–656 CE. Sharp (2016) connects the deposition of the Hoard with the Viking attack on Lichfield in 875 and postulates its loss at the same time as the removal of the St. Chad's Gospel from Lichfield into the Welsh area of Mercia. Gold artefacts were discovered by Terry Herbert, a member of Bloxwich Research and Metal Detecting Club, on 5 July 2009, when he

208-475: A coroner's inquest, and, after they have been valued by the Treasure Valuation Committee , Staffordshire County Council will have an opportunity to purchase the items so that they can be reunited with the rest of the hoard. Although these items were found by archaeologists, the money raised by their sale will be shared between Herbert and Johnson as they were responsible for the original discovery of

260-519: A ditch close to the find. Although excavations revealed no dating evidence for the feature, further investigation is planned. In total over 3,500 pieces were recovered. A final geophysical survey using specialist equipment provided by the Home Office did not suggest any further artefacts remained to be found. The discovery was publicly announced on 24 September 2009, attracting worldwide attention. An official website set up to showcase finds from

312-445: A finished state. These were probably buried with the intention to be recovered at a later time. A merchant's hoard is a collection of various functional items which, it is conjectured, were buried by a traveling merchant for safety, with the intention of later retrieval. A personal hoard is a collection of personal objects buried for safety in times of unrest. A hoard of loot is a buried collection of spoils from raiding and

364-699: A permanent gallery dedicated to the hoard since 2014, and the Potteries Museum has a hoard exhibition, and there are regular loans made to historic Mercian sites Tamworth Castle and Lichfield Cathedral , as part of the Mercian Trail . Two replicas of the helmet have been made for display in the museums in Birmingham and Stoke . On 26 January 2012, the hoard was featured in the hour-long BBC Two documentary Saxon Hoard: A Golden Discovery presented by TV historian Dan Snow . A similar show, titled Secrets of

416-574: A primary source for the gold found in the items, and the garnets were probably recycled from Roman objects, with some sourced in India and Sri Lanka. The poem Beowulf contains lines that experts believe may describe circumstances similar to the burial of the hoard: translation of Beowulf by Heaney (1999) The quote, above, is conflated from Seamus Heaney 's 1999 translation of two passages, 2985–2990 and 3166–3168. Original Beowulf text, trans. on far right: Hoard Hoards provide

468-505: A shield or a sword belt, or alternatively, it may have been part of the arm of a cross; a round cabochon jewel would have been fitted to the terminal end, and the other end would have fitted into the central fitting of the cross. The hoard was deposited in a remote area, just south of the Roman Watling Street , some 4 kilometres (2 mi) west of Letocetum , at the time part of the extra-parochial area of Ogley Hay (now part of

520-405: A single context, with many different types (some previously unknown) supporting the idea that the pommels were manufactured over a wide range of time. The Staffordshire Hoard official press statement notes that the only items in the hoard that are obviously non-martial are two (or possibly three) crosses. Sharp (2016) has shown there are possibly many pieces with a Christian connection and the hoard

572-434: A temple or church become the property of that institution, and may be used to its benefit. Altar cross An altar crucifix or altar cross is a cross placed upon an altar , and is often the principal ornament of the altar. Early Christians were wary of publicly exposing the cross or crucifix for fear of subjecting it to the insults of pagans, or scandalizing the weak. To avoid this, they often used symbols like

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624-399: A useful method of providing dates for artifacts through association as they can usually be assumed to be contemporary (or at least assembled during a decade or two), and therefore used in creating chronologies. Hoards can also be considered an indicator of the relative degree of unrest in ancient societies. Thus conditions in 5th and 6th century Britain spurred the burial of hoards, of which

676-430: Is a mixture of many Christian and non-martial items. The largest of the three crosses is missing some decorative settings (yet some are present but detached) but otherwise remains intact. It may have been an altar or processional cross . It could also have been attached to the front of a book, such as a Gospel Book. Yet the cross is folded. As to the reason or reasons for this, three explanations have been put forward. One

728-500: Is more in keeping with the popular idea of " buried treasure ". Votive hoards are different from the above in that they are often taken to represent permanent abandonment, in the form of purposeful deposition of items, either all at once or over time for ritual purposes, without intent to recover them . Furthermore, votive hoards need not be "manufactured" goods, but can include organic amulets and animal remains. Votive hoards are often distinguished from more functional deposits by

780-517: Is that the folding was done prior to burial "to make it fit into a small space". A second explanation suggests that this is a sign that the burial deposit was made by pagans , who had no particular esteem for the Christian character of the objects. A third view runs in an opposite direction, namely, that this was done with reverence by Christians in order to remove the sacred character of this cross, and other Christian pieces, prior to burying them. One of

832-482: Is the largest treasure of Anglo-Saxon gold and silver objects discovered to date, eclipsing, at least in quantity, the 1.5 kg (3.3 lb) hoard found in the Sutton Hoo ship burial in 1939. Apart from three religious objects the items in the hoard are military, and there are no domestic objects, such as vessels or eating utensils, or feminine jewellery, which are the more common Anglo-Saxon gold finds. Reportedly,

884-506: The Hammerwich parish), in the highland separating the Pencersæte and Tomsæte within the kingdom of Mercia . The quality of the artefacts buried in the hoard is very high. The apparent selection of "martial" artefacts, especially the decoration of swords, does not suggest that the hoard consists simply of loot. Most of the gold and silver items appear to have been intentionally removed from

936-608: The National Trust's Sutton Hoo visitor centre, alongside items usually on display in the British Museum , running from May to November 2020, but was disrupted by COVID-19 . A major research and conservation project began in 2012 to clean, investigate and research the Staffordshire Hoard objects. The project is funded by Historic England, Birmingham Museums Trust and the Potteries Museum & Art Gallery, Stoke, with

988-404: The anchor or trident . The first appearances of a cross upon the altar occurred approximately in the 6th century, although it remained unusual for several centuries, and even discouraged. When it was used, it seems to have been only during the actual service, and was likely a processional cross detachable from its staff, and placed on the altar after processing. This was at first almost always

1040-428: The 33 soil blocks that had not been examined at the time of publication of these figures. The contents include many finely worked silver and gold sword decorations removed from weaponry, including 66 gold sword hilt collars and many gold hilt plates, some with inlays of cloisonné garnet in zoomorphic designs (see lead picture). The 86 sword pommels found constitute the largest ever discovery of pommels in

1092-525: The Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery and the Potteries Museum & Art Gallery intended to acquire the entire hoard jointly, and a public appeal was launched to raise the amount needed. The Art Fund co-ordinated the appeal. If the sum had not been raised by 17 April 2010, the hoard might have been sold on the open market and the unique collection permanently broken up. On 23 March 2010 it

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1144-678: The Crown . A further selection of pieces from the Hoard was displayed at the Potteries Museum & Art Gallery, Stoke-on-Trent . Key items and numerous smaller pieces were then taken to the British Museum , London, where cataloguing, and some initial cleaning and conservation work commenced. As of 24 September 2009, 1,381 objects had been recovered, of which 864 have a mass of less than 3 grams (0.096  ozt ), 507 less than 1 gram (0.032  ozt ), leaving just 10 larger items. X-rays of unexamined lumps of earth suggested that there are more to be revealed. Early analysis established that

1196-461: The Hoard received over 10 million views in the first week after the announcement. Whilst Birmingham Archaeology continued to process the find, items from the Hoard were displayed at the Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery until 13 October 2009, attracting 40,000 people. Andrew Haigh, the coroner for South Staffordshire, declared the hoard to be treasure , and therefore property of

1248-531: The Saxon Gold , was aired on 22 April 2012 as a Time Team special , presented by Tony Robinson . In 2016, weapon fittings from the hoard went on a national tour of the U.K., "Warrior treasures: Saxon gold from the Staffordshire Hoard", to the Royal Armouries, Leeds (May–October) and Bristol Museum & Art Gallery (October 2016–April 2017). In 2020, part of the hoard was to be displayed at

1300-580: The altar itself. This is called a rood cross , which may also refer to a crucifix placed on a beam above the altar, along with figures of the Blessed Virgin Mary and Saint John the Apostle , or above a rood screen . Usage of an altar cross, or sometimes a crucifix, varies widely by custom. It is near universal in Anglican churches. Most mainline Protestant churches will have a cross displayed on or near

1352-430: The altar. Roman Catholic liturgical norms require a crucifix (with the corpus or body of Jesus) near or on the altar whenever Mass is celebrated. In some cases, to better fulfill this requirement, the crucifix is instead hung on the wall behind the altar, so that when the priest is facing the congregation the crucifix is not obstructed. In some churches, the crucifix is hung mid-air via chains or metal cords, directly above

1404-464: The appearance of a higher gold content, a technique not previously credited to them. As with other Anglo-Saxon jewellery, the garnets in 28 pieces may have come from as far away as Sri Lanka or Afghanistan , probably in the Roman period. A summary of the preliminary contents of the hoard, as of late 2009, is shown in the table below. This excludes items such as the gold horse's head that were in one of

1456-431: The contents "show every sign of being carefully selected". There is broad agreement that the typical object in the hoard was made in the 7th century, with the date of the deposition of the hoard of course post-dating the manufacture of the latest object it includes. Along with other discoveries, examination of the hoard showed Saxon goldsmiths were able to alter the surface of the gold by depletion gilding to give

1508-410: The field after it had been ploughed. Many of the pieces are less than 1 gram (0.032  ozt ) in weight, but there are some larger pieces, including a cross-shaped mount, an eagle-shaped mount, and a helmet cheek piece that matches one from the 2009 discovery. These additional pieces are believed to be part of the original hoard. In January 2013, 81 of the 91 items were declared treasure at

1560-490: The hoard was not associated with a burial. In late March 2010, a team of archaeologists carried out a follow-up excavation on the site, digging 100 metres (110 yd) of trenches and pits in the field. According to Staffordshire county archaeologist Stephen Dean, there was no more gold or treasure to recover from the site, and the aim of the new excavation was to look for dating and environmental evidence. Archaeologists hoped to be able to use this evidence to determine what

1612-697: The hoard was put on display at the British Museum (from 3 November 2009 until 17 April 2010). Eighty items from the hoard, including a gold horse's head that has not previously been exhibited, went on display at the Potteries Museum & Art Gallery in Stoke-on-Trent from 13 February 2010 until 7 March 2010. Items from the hoard were on display at the National Geographic Museum in Washington, D.C. , United States, from 29 October 2011 to 4 March 2012. Birmingham Museum has had

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1664-505: The hoard. Terry Herbert, the finder of the hoard, and Fred Johnson, the farmer on whose land the hoard was found, each received a half share of the £3.285 million raised by the Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery and the Potteries Museum & Art Gallery. The two men were later reported to have "fallen out" over the division of the money. The hoard was first displayed at the Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery (from 24 September 2009 until 13 October 2009), and subsequently part of

1716-565: The hoard. The ten items not declared treasure were identified as modern waste material. Kevin Leahy of the British Museum has stated that the ten items not declared as belonging to the original hoard may represent part of a different Anglo-Saxon period hoard. Two of these ten items are high-quality pieces of copper alloy, but they are different in style to the gold and silver items of the original hoard. He concludes that "Anglo Saxons clearly visited

1768-497: The landscape looked like at the time that the hoard was deposited. In December 2012, it was announced that 91 additional items of gold and silver metalwork had been found in the field where the Staffordshire Hoard was discovered in 2009. The finds were made in November ;2012 when archaeologists and metal detectorists from Archaeology Warwickshire, working for Staffordshire County Council and English Heritage , visited

1820-431: The later king of Mercia, in which the saint foretells that the king's enemy would "flee from your face". The parallel verse from Psalm 67 (Hebrew numbering 68) , verse 2, occurs when Guthlac is driving away demons who appeared to him in a vision. Sharp (2016) has suggested the inscription shows angst in the face of a great threat and this could only have been the Viking invasion. The incised strip appears to be

1872-872: The most famous are the Hoxne Hoard , Suffolk; the Mildenhall Treasure , the Fishpool Hoard , Nottinghamshire, the Water Newton hoard, Cambridgeshire, and the Cuerdale Hoard , Lancashire, all preserved in the British Museum . Prudence Harper of the Metropolitan Museum of Art voiced some practical reservations about hoards at the time of the Soviet exhibition of Scythian gold in New York City in 1975. Writing of

1924-406: The most intriguing items in the hoard is a small strip of gold (St.H 550), measuring 179 mm × 15.8 mm × 2.1 mm (7.047 in × 0.622 in × 0.083 in) when unfolded, inscribed with a biblical quotation, from Numbers 10:35, in insular majuscule , on both sides, as The Nova Vulgata reading of this passage is: The reading of the additional words on

1976-422: The nature of the goods themselves (from animal bones to diminutive artifacts), the places buried (being often associated with watery places, burial mounds and boundaries), and the treatment of the deposit (careful or haphazard placement and whether ritually destroyed/broken). Valuables dedicated to the use of a deity (and thus classifiable as "votive") were not always permanently abandoned. Valuable objects given to

2028-461: The objects they were previously attached to. Brooks (2010) associates the predominantly warlike character of the artefacts in the hoard with the custom of giving war-gear ( heriot ) as death duty to the king upon the death of one of his noblemen. The removal of the sword pommel caps finds a parallel in Beowulf which mentions warriors stripping the pommels of their enemies' swords. Wall (2015) postulates

2080-412: The objects was completed in 2016, and work continues on the final publication of the results, which will include an online catalogue as well as research publication. The research project has revealed many new insights into the collection, including a number of new objects and information about the manufacture of the metalwork and construction of the objects. Byzantine coins, for example, are believed to be

2132-523: The original group. Such "dealer's hoards" can be highly misleading, but better understanding of archaeology amongst collectors, museums and the general public is gradually making them less common and more easily identified. Hoards may be of precious metals , coinage , tools or less commonly, pottery or glass vessels. There are various classifications depending on the nature of the hoard: A founder's hoard contains broken or unfit metal objects, ingots , casting waste, and often complete objects, in

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2184-432: The rest of the hoard. Excavation work was funded by English Heritage who contracted Birmingham Archaeology to do the fieldwork. Ploughing had scattered the artefacts, so an area 9 by 13 metres (30 by 43 ft) was excavated in the search. Because of the importance of the find, the exact site of the hoard was initially kept secret. A geophysical survey of the field in which the hoard was found, discovered what could be

2236-537: The second version of the text, [a] diuie nos [.r.] , is unclear; they may be practice letters 2 meaning that the inside face was not supposed to be visible, and contains an abandoned attempt at the inscription. The passage is quoted fairly often, notably in the Life of the Mercian Saint Guthlac (d. 714), most likely composed in the 730s. The passage occurs in the context of Guthlac's meeting with Æthelbald ,

2288-400: The site more than once to bury items". On 25 November 2009, the hoard was valued by the Treasure Valuation Committee at £ 3.285 million, which, under the provisions of the 1996 Treasure Act , is the sum that must be paid as a reward to the finder and landowner, to be shared equally, by any museum that wishes to acquire the hoard. After the hoard was valued, it was announced that

2340-615: The so-called "Maikop treasure" (acquired from three separate sources by three museums early in the twentieth century, the Berliner Museen , the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology , and the Metropolitan Museum, New York), Harper warned: By the time "hoards" or "treasures" reach museums from the antiquities market, it often happens that miscellaneous objects varying in date and style have become attached to

2392-404: The start of a service, started appearing upon altars instead of nearby, and as such marked a rather large evolution in the adornment of altars. Around the 14th century, altar crosses were almost universally replaced by crucifixes, probably now affordable by all churches, however, it was not until the 1570 Roman Missal of Pope Pius V that there is any mention of an obligation to have a crucifix on

2444-413: The stem of a cross and this indicates a Viking threat to a church. Paleographically, the inscription most likely dates to the 8th century, with the late 7th or early 9th not to be ruled out. Elisabeth Okasha notes that the closest parallel to the script used is the inscription in the lead plate from Flixborough, dated to the 8th or 9th century. The gold strip may have been originally fastened to

2496-470: The support of other patrons. The first phase of the research project ran from 2012 to 2014 and was mainly focused on cleaning and cataloguing the objects, as well as conducting a programme of scientific analysis at the British Museum. A 'grouping exercise' brought all the objects together in 2014 for several weeks' intensive study and following this, a second phase concentrated on joining broken objects, further scientific analysis and typological study. Study of

2548-619: The workmanship is extremely high and especially remarkable in view of the large number of individual objects, such as swords and a helmet , from which many of the fragments in the hoard came. The hoard was purchased jointly by the Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery and the Potteries Museum & Art Gallery for £ 3.285 million under the Treasure Act 1996 . The hoard includes almost 4,600 items and metal fragments, totalling 5.094 kg (11.23 lb) of gold and 1.442 kg (3.18 lb) of silver, with 3,500 cloisonné garnets and

2600-560: Was announced that the sum had been raised three weeks before the deadline, after a grant of £1.285 million from the National Heritage Memorial Fund (NHMF) was added to the money already collected from individuals, councils, and other groups and associations. Although the purchase price has been achieved, the Art Fund appeal continued, in order to raise a further £1.7million to help fund the conservation, study and display of

2652-654: Was most likely deposited between 650 and 675 CE, and contains artefacts probably manufactured during the 6th and 7th centuries. It was discovered in 2009 in a field near the village of Hammerwich , near Lichfield , in Staffordshire , England . The location was in the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Mercia at the time of the hoard's deposition. The hoard is of "radical" importance in Anglo-Saxon archaeology . The artefacts are nearly all martial in character and contain no objects specific to use by women. The average quality of

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2704-486: Was searching an area of recently ploughed farmland near Hammerwich , Staffordshire , with a metal detector . Over the next five days, 244 gold objects were recovered from the soil. At this point Herbert contacted Duncan Slarke, the finds liaison officer for the Staffordshire and West Midlands Portable Antiquities Scheme . The landowner, Fred Johnson, granted permission for an archaeological excavation to search for

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