Another hoard!

From another one of my roving reporters.

From Scotland this time – dated between 300-50BC:

£1m golden hoard rewrites history of ancient Scotland

An enthusiast with a metal detector has unearthed a £1 million hoard of Iron Age gold necklaces from a field near Stirling in a discovery that is set to revolutionise the way that historians view some of Scotland’s ancient inhabitants.
According to experts at the National Museums of Scotland (NMS), the four beautifully worked “torcs” represent the most significant find of Iron Age metalwork in the country. One of the Stirling necklaces is a ribbon torc made from twisted Irish or Scottish sheet gold. Another is encrusted with circles of gold wire and beads of gold that look like pearls.
In financial terms, the anonymous finder has struck gold in every sense. A single, similar item — the Newark torc — was sold for £350,000 in 2006, suggesting that treasure trove of well in excess of £1 million will soon be paid by the Crown.
A spokesman for NMS, whose experts are studying the find, said that a value would be determined by the independent Scottish Archaeological Finds Allocation Panel early next year. “The finder is normally rewarded with the current market value,” he added.
For archaeologists, monetary matters pale against the historical significance of the torcs, which probably date from between the 1st and 3rd centuries BC. Intriguingly, the Stirling find appears to reveal links between local tribes — traditionally seen as isolated — and other Iron Age people in Europe. Goldwork of roughly equivalent design has been discovered near Toulouse, in the South of France, a connection suggesting that both ideas and technology travelled over surprisingly large distances.
Ian Ralston, Professor of Archaeology at the University of Edinburgh, pointed out that the latest find comes eight years after an Iron Age cart burial was unearthed at Newbridge in West Lothian. This high-status burial — probably a chieftain and his chariot — was the first of its type to have been found in Scotland, though similar interments took place from the Atlantic coast of France to Hungary. “These two finds suggest tribes in what we think of as ‘Scotland’ had rather wider links than archaeologists a generation ago would have expected,” Professor Ralston said. “They knew what was going on elsewhere, valued similar things and emulated practice in burials or votives.
“If you had said to me in 2000, what are the chances of a cart burial turning up in Scotland, I would have said about zilch. If you had asked the same question about a hoard of torcs near Stirling, I would have said about zilch. Then these discoveries turn up and very quickly change perceptions of the past.”
He added that the find was the most significant in Scotland since 1857, when two gold torcs were found on farmland in Morayshire.
Archaeologists divide over the reasons for the burial of hoards. One school of thought believes that precious of objects would be hidden in time of war, to be reclaimed later. However, Professor Ralston leans towards the theory that the hoards were votives, offerings to the gods. Others hoards — such as 20 torcs discovered together at Snettisham, Norfolk — suggested many people acting in concert and burying items together.
“The implication is that this stuff is consigned to the ground for higher purposes. In Scottish terms this is a hugely significant deposit, but even in European terms, four torcs together is very unusual,” he said.
The jewellery probably belonged to members of a Celtic-speaking tribe, Professor Ralston added. The same tribes would bind together to face Roman invaders and would be called Caledonii by Tacitus, the historian, in the 1st century AD.
In July a hoard of more than 1,000 golden Anglo Saxon items were unearthed from a field in Staffordshire.

Scots metal detector man finds 2000-year-old lost treasure trove worth £1m [link has video pics]

WW2 coastal defense research – website

Under the threat of German invasion in the summer of 1940, the creation of a defensive ‘coastal crust’ represented one of the largest construction projects in British history. Hundreds of miles of beaches were closed off to the public and fortifiied with barbed wire, minefields and gun emplacements. The traces of this defence landscape are now only visible archaeologically and it is sometimes difficult to visualise the impact of these defence works on the British coastline. The small village of Walberswick, Suffolk, is a historically important landscape containing a wealth of historical information on World War II defences that allows us to recreate the military environment of 1940.

Online

Sutton Hoo sceptre

From my roving reporter:

Replica of King Raedwald’s sceptre unveiled [Link includes pics]

IT is one of Britain’s most iconic archaeological sites and a new project has helped complete another piece of the Sutton Hoo puzzle.

The ancient Anglo-Saxon burial ground was uncovered in 1939 and to mark the 70th anniversary a Suffolk craftsman was commissioned to create an exact replica of the sceptre, one of a range of stunning artefacts found at the site.

The sceptre has been described by British Museum staff as “unique, and one of the most extraordinary objects made in the earl Anglo-Saxon period”.

Although not as famous as the shield and helmet discovered at the site, and not made of gold, such as the treasures recently discovered as part of the Staffordshire hoard, the sceptre is still of exceptional workmanship.

Suffolk stonemason and sculptor Brian Ansell was challenged by the National Trust back in February to carve a replica of the sceptre.

Mr Ansell used basic tools and traditional methods to create the sceptre, and said he had learned a lot about how it had been crafted.

Mr Ansell said: “We have gained insights into the mind of the original carver and his patron. The quality of work is extremely accomplished and during the process I have learned to respect my fellow mason who carved the original, over 1,000 years ago.

“I have used a basic kit of masonry tools to complete the task in hand, including a handful of fine carving chisels for the more delicate work.

“It’s a tool kit that would have been used by the Romans and therefore fairly authentic to what would have been used to make the original sceptre.”

The sceptre is seen as an emblem of power – a fitting tribute to Anglo-Saxon King Raedwald, who is thought to have been buried at the site

It was formally handed back to “King Raedwald” yesterday and he then presented it to the National Trust. It now takes pride of place in the burial chamber recreation at the Sutton Hoo Visitor Centre.

Jonathon White, property manager at Sutton Hoo, said the project, funded by the Sutton Hoo Society, had helped to shed light on how skilled Anglo-Saxon craftsmen were.

He said: “For years we had a very poor quality replica made of resin and we have taken that out now and replaced it with this very accurate replica and it looks like a real ceremonial piece – it looks fit for a king.

“We have found out through the making of it that it was perhaps produced by a stonemason who was schooled in Roman techniques and knew what he was doing.”

Further reading:

Cohen, S. L., 1966, ‘The Sutton Hoo Whetstone’, Speculum 41

Enright, M.J., 2006, The Sutton Hoo Sceptre and the Roots of Celtic Kingship Theory

Enright, M.J., 1982, ‘The Sutton Hoo whetstone sceptre: a study in iconography and cultural milieu’, Anglo Saxon England 11 : 119-134

Evison, V. I. 1975, ‘Pagan Saxon Whetstones.’ Antiquaries Journal 55 : 70–85
Simpson, J., 1979, ‘The King’s Whetstone’ Antiquity 53 : 96-101

Llanbedr-goch, Ynys Môn, another large early medieval whetstone. It is 267mm in length (about half the size of Sutton Hoo), of fine grain sandstone of square section, tapered at the lower end. Little used as a whetstone, Dr Mark Redknap has interpreted it as a symbol of rank, reminiscent of the sceptre whetstone from Sutton Hoo. Some whetstones had a more symbolic significance than being merely functional objects.

Danish Archaeology

Ancient Cult of the Viking Kings

Could a large mud building unearthed in Lejre have been a cult place or beer hall of the ancient Viking kings?

The hall, 48 metres long and seven metres across, overlooks the site of a Viking palace unearthed in 1986 in what is an historic area of Denmark.

‘We are sure we have found a royal building of some sort,’ said Tom Christensen, curator of Roskilde Museum at the time. ‘The odd thing about the site is that it is littered with bits and pieces of exquisite golden jewellery, glass and bronze broaches, high quality artifacts, such as drinking glasses and ceramics, which all seem to have been deliberately smashed in some ritual.’

‘There is also a huge pile of cooking stones from primitive ovens. This was obviously a place frequented by the upper classes of the Iron Age. Maybe it was some sort of beer hall or a sacred site where cult or religious activities were carried out. The building’s post holes are over a metre deep, so it must have been an impressive construction,’ said Christensen.

A large part of the rolling countryside around the hamlet of Lejre, near the cathedral town of Roskilde, an area which abounds in ancient burial mounds and Viking stone tombs, has been designated as an archaeological site.

Here, archaeologists have been excavating since 1986 in the hope of finding the ancient seat of Denmark’s first Viking kings. The sagas say that Leje was the chief city of Denmark’s first Viking royal family – the Skjold, or in English ‘Scylding’ dynasty – dating back to around AD 400-500. Nordic myths tell us that King Skjold, which means ‘shield’ in Danish, was so named because he made his first mysterious appearance asleep in a boat, lying on his shield.

The Scylding dynasty lasted at least a century, through Skjold’s successors Halfdan, Roar, Helge and Rolf Krake. The oldest known reference to the dynasty’s heroic and bloody exploits is in the eighth century Anglo-Saxon epic poem ‘Beowulf’, often called the first major work of English literature.

Set in the period of the Germanic migrations in the fourth to seventh centuries, the poem places the Scylding King Hrothgar’s Hall, Hereot, at Lejre, while Saxo Grammaticus, a 13th century chronicler who compiled a history of both legendary and historical Danish kings, also identified Lejre as an ancient royal seat.

Many modern Beowulf scholars identify Hereot with Lejre and, with the discovery of the hall, Danish archaeologists believed they had finally found the site. ‘The date of the cult place fits perfectly with the era of the Scyldings,’ Christensen said.

In 1986 archaeologists discovered a major upturned boat-shaped Viking longhouse, but only the foundations of the huge hall and outhouses remained as the original construction had been of wood. The 50-metre-long, 10-metre-high longhouse was twice the size of any similar hall discovered in Denmark, leading archaeologists to believe they had stumbled on a royal palace from the time of the sagas.

The dimensions of the hall were calculated from 200 posthole marks on the ground from the huge oak beams that supported the walls and roof. There were signs on the site of earlier constructions, dams, windmills and other buildings including a bronze foundry, workshops and outlining fencing, underlining the importance of the Lejre settlement.

Great Cornard Bronze Age Burial site

From my roving reporter:

Burial site unearthed at former rugby club

A BRONZE Age burial site has been unearthed by archaeologists excavating the former home of a Suffolk rugby club.

The two fields which served as the home of Sudbury Rugby Club in nearby Great Cornard are the source of great excitement for a team of archaeologists working at the site.

Since moving into the site off The Mead in July teams from Suffolk County Council’s Archaeological Service have discovered a haul of artefacts dating back to around 3,000 BC.

The dig has gone ahead as part of a future redevelopment of the site by Persimmon Homes which has paid for the excavation as part of its agreement to build hundreds of new homes in Great Cornard.

One field has been fully excavated and work on the second one is underway and proving fruitful with struck flint, used for making tools, Saxon pottery and even knife blades among the finds [doesn't specify whether flint or metal 'knife blades'].

Jo Caruth, senior project officer for the dig, said: “It is very exciting we are able to dig these two adjacent ring ditches and we are hoping it will tell us a bit more about Bronze Age burial rites.

“It also helps enhance the picture of the landscape in that area of Great Cornard.”

The fertile south-facing valleys, such as those of the River Stour, are known to be a rich area for such sites and their locations become apparent through crop circles visible in aerial photographs. Trenches are then dug evenly around the circle typically uncovering 30% of it to give a good representation of what is beneath the site.

Mo Muldowney, archaeological project officer at the Great Cornard dig, said the site was found to be associated with pre-historic burial practices and further analysis will determine whether they have human remains.

“It is a funerary landscape which basically means it is where they built their monument to bury people,” she said. “The second ring ditch is slightly smaller and there appears to be the remains of some mound material.”

A team of 12 archaeologists is involved in hand digging the site due to the sensitivity of the operation and estimate there is another 5-6 weeks work left on the second field.

Artefacts uncovered are currently being quantified and dated back at their offices in Bury St Edmunds ahead of further analysis. Unless treasure is found they will go into storage and may end up at a local museum.

The Staffordshire Hoard

Pictured: Re-enactor wearing a Vendel helm.

It’s been mentioned on a number of blogs, (e.g. A Corner of Tenth century Europe), much has been written about it in the news , the exhibition has been visited by thousands in the past weeks and it’s been commented on by expert and lay-person alike.

The quality of the craftsmanship is  so intricate, neat and precise. Some of the work is exceedingly small and delicate, and one wonders how it was created, and by whom – Athelstan the Myopic? The zoomorphic ornament of intertwining lacertines is sixth to seventh century Salin’s style II, from the so-called Dark Ages!

Much has been said and speculated and once the hoard is properly cleaned, conserved and analysed, more information should come to light, but I’d like to dash off a few notes here regarding some of the materials and some of the techniques available to the craftsmen of this time.   This is in haste -I’ll probably add snippets to this post as I think of them.

Filigree

Dr Niamh Whitfield has done quite a study of filigree,  particularly  of the Irish examples.

The craftsmen were aware of methods of soldering very fine wire and granules without leaving traces of ‘flooding’. There is a method, which dates back to 2000 BC, using a copper compound, blobs of low-melting point, gold-copper solder, where the copper diffuses completely, when heated in a charcoal fire, so as to leave no trace.

Some techniques are described by *Theophilus’, eleventh/twelfth-century, On Divers Arts, the earliest documentation of craftsmen’s methods.

There are many techniques involved in the process of filigree and, the closely related, gold grain or granulation work.

Soft wires and threads of gold can be drawn to the desired thickness, or hammered and rolled. Beaded wire, imitating the effect of rows of beads, was formed out of plain wire, probably hand rolled between corrugated dies or beading files.   When hammered flat, beaded wire formed scalloped ribbons.  S- and z-twist wired laid alternately can produce a herringbone pattern of a pseudoplait.

Twisted flat ribbons, made by twisting flat taut strips of gold, are considered to denote a Merovingian influence, other techniques from Scandinavia are typical of late 6th – 7th century.

Gold

So much gold! Some gold was probably mined in Britain in the Anglo-Saxon period, but most likely in small quantities, so it would need to be augmented by imports and re-use of the metal. Gold was used more for jewellery in the late 6th to early 7th centuries, increasingly being  replaced by silver by the end of the 8th century.

There has been some analysis of gold from Anglo-Saxon jewellery which has shown a relationship to the composition and degeneration of Merovingian gold coins, suggesting that the coins could have been a source of some gold objects.

Garnet

The source of the  garnets used could be from as far away as  Sri Lanka, and the supply, wherever it was from, would have relied on trade routes. Arrhenius covers the minutiae concerning garnets, definitions, chemical composition and mineralogical analysis etc. in the first chapter of Merovingian Garnet Jewellery, for those desperate to know more.

Tiny flat garnets were cut to shape and set in a mass of cloisonné cells, each with a waffle-patterned, stamped, gold-foil backing to enhance the brilliance.

There are a variety of cell forms, each requiring a garnet cut and shaped to fit it, such as mushroom- and step-patterns, all fitting to each other.

Further reading:

Brown, P. D. C. and  Schweizer, F., 1973, ‘X-Ray Fluorescent Analysis of Anglo-Saxon Jewellery’, Archaeometry, 15,2 :175-92.

East, K.,1985, ‘A study of the cross-hatched gold foils from Sutton Hoo’, in Hawkes, J.C., Campbell, J., & Brown, D., (eds),  Anglo-Saxon Studies in Archaeology and History 4 : 129-142

*Hawthorne, J.G. and C.S. Smith, C.S., 1963, Theophilus: On Divers Arts. University of Chicago Press,  reprinted New York: Dover Publications 1979

Kent, J. P. C., 1972 ‘Gold standards of the Merovingian coinage A.D. 580-700′, in E. T. Hall and D. M. Metcalf
(eds.), Methods of Chemical and Metallurgical Investigation of Ancient Coinage, Royal Numismatic Society Special
Publication.

Middleton, A. et al, 2004, ‘Treasure!’, Geology Today, Vol. 20 (5) : 185-88

Tamla, Ü  & Varkki, H., 2009, ‘Learning the technologies of making beaded wire’,  Estonian Journal of Archaeology,  13 (1) : 36–-52

A few pieces from the hoard were on display at Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery until  today  – lovely Edwardian Tea Rooms!

Gold and garnet sword fitting

Gold and garnet sword fitting

Originally uploaded by portableantiquities

Dagger Hilt

Dagger Hilt

Originally uploaded by portableantiquities

Roman Carlisle

Eighty thousand treasures of the Romans in Carlisle revealed

The secrets of a Roman dig in Carlisle, hailed as one of the most significant in the UK with ‘world-first’ finds, are about to be fully revealed for the first time in nine years.
Tim Padley shows off a late first-century hair pin, crowned with a decorative head
The city’s  Tullie House Museum has finally been reunited with the 80,000 artefacts uncovered during the Millennium project, and the archaeologists behind it are on the brink of publishing their 500-page report.
John Zant, of Oxford Archaeology North, is one of the team who spent years painstakingly cataloguing, conserving and assessing the finds, compared at the time to those of the Vikings in York. He was involved in the dig on the  Castle Green in 2000 and said those involved always knew they were going to find “extremely important material”.
The first report detailing the sequence of the Roman occupation on the fort underneath the Castle has already been published, and the second is ‘within weeks’ of revealing details of the artefacts found and what they show about Roman life in Carlisle.
“ The Millennium dig was such an important investigation,” Mr Zant said. “It was one of the most significant excavations in north England with many different elements of national, even international, significance.”
He said the report was not just about the artefacts themselves but how they built up a broader picture of the conditions and life at the fort.
“It’s not just the coins and armour, the seeds and insect remains can tell us a lot about the environment,” he said.
“They can give us an idea of what conditions were like. Was it wet? Boggy? Insects live in particular types of environments so the ones we find on site can tell us a bit about the climate and conditions.
“The plant remains give us an insight into what was being grown and eaten.”
The ‘world-first finds’ included articulated armour which had only been seen on statues before, and some arm guards.
“Very few had ever been found in the ground,” Mr Zant said. “They are of international importance.”
Because of the amount of archaeology uncovered it has taken years to conserve and analyse the finds – a complex process completed by experts at Oxford Archaeology North, which is based in Lancaster.
“The amount of the material and the sensitivity of it means some needs specialist conservation,” Mr Zant said.
“It’s not unusual for things to take as long [as this].
“It’s not a case of cleaning it up and shoving it in a museum.
“Things have to be dealt with properly and stabilised.”
He said they had been returning the artefacts to Tullie House over the past two years and, with the exception of a handful, all were now in storage there.
It could, however, be a couple of years before they go on display properly as the museum is in the process of creating a £570,000 Roman Gateway gallery to house the artefacts.
That is scheduled to open in April 2011 and Tullie House is currently awaiting confirmation of funding.
Tim Padley, keeper of archaeology at Tullie House, said the archaeologists’ reports showed, for the first time, the chronology of the Roman fort in Carlisle.
“It will show what was happening at what time which is phenomenally useful,” he said.
He said they wouldn’t be showing everything in the gallery but ‘taking choice picks’.
“The castle is Royal property and we need to reach an agreement to allow us to curate the objects,” he added. “After that, we will look at our programme of displays to see what we want to use and when we can use it. It won’t be a sudden large exhibition.
“There isn’t the space to do what was done in South Shields and to build full-scale replicas.”
He said the museum had already shown the best pieces such as the armour and weaponry in displays at Tullie House and at the castle.
Councillor Gareth Ellis, portfolio holder for culture with the city council, said the Roman Gallery would focus on the western end of Hadrian’s Wall but also illustrate life in Roman Carlisle from 78AD when the first wooden fort was built on the castle site. “It is intended that a wide range of finds including leather tent panels and a plasterer’s wooden float will be on show,” he added.
“This is to enable the viewer to get a clear picture of life of the legionaries and citizens of Carlisle during the 400 years of Roman occupation, telling an important part of the 2,000-year-old city’s history.”

Ipswich bells

‘World’s oldest’ church bells returned home

The five bells of the church, which date back more than 500 years, will soon be heard again after a £100,000 restoration project. It is said that they were heard regularly by a young  Cardinal Wolsey, a former Archbishop of York and adviser to Henry VIII.
But they have not sounded for two decades because of the poor condition of the tower they are housed in. A new steel and cast iron frame was installed eight metres lower than the previous frame in July.
As the restoration project took place the bells were taken to be cleaned at Whitechapel Bell Foundry in east London. The oldest of the bells date back to 1450 and together form what experts claim is the oldest Middle Ages full circle set of their type in the world.
The restoration was funded by cash raised from a public appeal by The Ipswich Historic Churches Trust last year.
John Blatchly, chairman of Ipswich Historic Churches Trust, said: “It certainly is a happy day and we’re all delighted to see the bells back. We are very excited to think that these bells are coming back to be installed in a new frame.
“They were previously in part of the tower built in 1883 which was very pretty but flimsy. They will now be moved to a sturdier part dating back to the 15th century. The bells will be rung from a floor visible from the body of the church so everyone going through the doors will be able to see them through a glass screen.
“We estimate that they will be being rung as early as September 10.”
Mr Blatchly said the Whitechapel firm was the best they could find and the oldest active firm in London.
“We received enormous help from the borough and the Elizabeth Walter Trust and also the  Suffolk Guild of ringers and the public of Ipswich and Suffolk,” he said.

Wolsey’s Gate, Ipswich