Staffordshire Hoard. Image credits: Wikimedia Commons
In July 2009, a man swinging a metal detector over a farm field in south Staffordshire began pulling gold out of the ground. The study The Staffordshire (Ogley Hay) hoard: recovery of a treasure , published in Antiquity in 2011 by Leahy, Bland, Hooke, Jones and Okasha, records the first days of the find. The hoard was discovered by Terry Herbert between 5th and 10th July 2009 using metal detectors in the arable lands of south Staffordshire. Slarke met Terry Herbert at his house and made a provisional inventory of 244 bags of items. The study Secrets of the Anglo-Saxon goldsmiths: Analysis of gold objects from the Staffordshire Hoard , published in the Journal of Archaeological Science in 2016 by Blakelock, La Niece and Fern, calls the hoard the largest ever find of Anglo-Saxon gold and silver metalwork. In the same 2016 study, Blakelock, La Niece, and Fern state that they started by studying 16 gold artefacts that were used to deplete gilding in order to remove silver and copper from the surface. The researchers also studied 114 other items, totalling more than 222 parts. On the website of the Staffordshire Hoard, the hoard consists of 5 kg of gold and 1.3 kg of silver, which is more than the weight of the Sutton Hoo burial (1.66 kg of precious metals). Within days of the discovery in July 2009, Terry Herbert, the person who found the items, told Fred Johnson, the landowner, and other authorities. The experts then studied these artefacts for many years, after which the value of the monetary prize, £3.285 million, was split evenly between Herbert and Johnson.
The same method could be used for discovering workshop procedures in other civilisations, according to the authors. Before long, people had already begun calling this find one of the most significant hoards of Anglo-Saxon artefacts to ever be discovered. It also set off a valuation, a national fundraising drive and an equal payout to the finder and the farmer who owned the land. He contacted Duncan Slarke, Finds Liaison Officer of Staffordshire and the West Midlands in the Portable Antiquities Scheme. The analysis showed no relationship between the purity of the alloy and the age of the objects, so purity alone cannot be used to arrange the pieces in date order. It belongs to the 7th century AD and is mainly martial in nature. The NHMF also points out that the experts say that the high level of craftsmanship may indicate royal property. In this way, the two papers and the NHMF information provide a complete account of the process.
As mentioned earlier in the study, the findings also suggest that there was extensive surface treatment of gold in Anglo-Saxon workshops.
