Massive Anglo-Saxon Hoard Reported

U.K. authorities have announced that a member of the public has discovered a massive Anglo-Saxon hoard with a metal detector. An excellent website about the find has also been developed. See: http://www.staffordshirehoard.org.uk/

Here is an excerpt from the Press Statement:

The exact spot where the Hoard lay hidden for a millennium and a half cannot yet be revealed. However we can say that it lay at the heart of the Anglo-Saxon Kingdom of Mercia. There is approximately 5 kg of gold and 1.3 kg of silver (Sutton Hoo had 1.66kg of gold).

The hoard was reported to Duncan Slarke, Finds Liaison Officer with the Portable Antiquities Scheme. With the assistance of the finder, the find-spot has been excavated by archaeologists from Staffordshire County Council, lead by Ian Wykes and Steven Dean, and a team from Birmingham Archaeology, project managed by Bob Burrows and funded by English Heritage. The hoard has been examined at Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery by Dr Kevin Leahy, National Finds Adviser with the Portable Antiquities Scheme.The exact spot where the Hoard lay hidden for a millennium and a half cannot yet be revealed. However we can say that it lay at the heart of the Anglo-Saxon Kingdom of Mercia. There is approximately 5 kg of gold and 1.3 kg of silver (Sutton Hoo had 1.66kg of gold).

The hoard was reported to Duncan Slarke, Finds Liaison Officer with the Portable Antiquities Scheme. With the assistance of the finder, the find-spot has been excavated by archaeologists from Staffordshire County Council, lead by Ian Wykes and Steven Dean, and a team from Birmingham Archaeology, project managed by Bob Burrows and funded by English Heritage. The hoard has been examined at Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery by Dr Kevin Leahy, National Finds Adviser with the Portable Antiquities Scheme.

See http://www.staffordshirehoard.org.uk/about/

The finder and the land owner stand to receive a substantial monetary award (funded by the National Lottery) based on the find's "fair market value." See http://www.staffordshirehoard.org.uk/qanda/

Some archaeologists feel that the U.K.'s system of rewards "pays people to loot," but the system does ensure that many finds are recorded. And, while this find is quite significant, many-- including most coin finds-- are not. In such circumstances, the artifacts are returned to the finder (and/or the land owner) who can do with them what they wish. In practice, this means that while much is recorded, the state only keeps what it can reasonably be expected to study, display and care for. The rest generally is sold to collectors who preserve, study and display artifacts that otherwise would most likely rot in storage.

There is a saying that people get the government they deserve. Surely, governments get the cultural heritage policy they deserve as well. In England and Wales, the government presides over a cultural heritage system that encourages the public to work cooperatively with it and the archaeological community to preserve the past. The results are manifest.

In contrast, in "hard line" source countries like Egypt, Greece and Cyprus, the public reports few finds, looting is a problem, and the archaeological community can be rather insular. I would argue such systems only encourage corruption and public distrust of the narrow group of "connected" archaeologists and collectors that benefit from the status quo. In extreme cases, cutting off the public from archaeology can lead to what happened to the Iraq Museum or the Buddhas of Bamiyan. But, more likely, such governments get a moribund brand of archaeology of cultural bureaucrats, sparsely attended museums and a slow deterioration of their cultural heritage in storage facilities that lack adequate climate control.