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[jacaranda_]

I know this isn't a Chronicle article, but the "Research" forum didn't seem quite right:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/25/world/europe/25treasure.html?hp

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

I love everything about this story, especially about the guy who found the site with a metal detector.  The second link has some breathtakingly beautiful photos of the items -- which haven't even been properly cleaned yet.  I completely understand why people who are experts on the period were brought to tears when they first saw the collection (can't quite bring myself to call it a "hoard").  This is a pretty fun semester to be teaching Beowulf

[systeme_d_]

Thanks so much for these links, Jacaranda. 

I saw a story about this on the evening news, but the story went by so quickly.  I so wanted to see the artifacts more closely, and those pictures did the trick.

I don't teach in this area at all, but still, I am really struck by the magnificence of these items.

[mended_drum]

I just posted this elsewhere, but since the official site keeps going down due to traffic, you might want to view photos posted here instead: http://www.flickr.com/photos/finds/sets/72157622378376316/

[larryc]

Here in America the best the "detectorists" (what a wonderful English word!) can do is turn up the odd Civil War bullet of high school ring. I can't think of any similar stories here. Anyone?

[barred_owl]

Thanks for posting the pictures M_D!  I'd read the story earlier today, but it was not accompanied by pictures of the objects.

larryc, I can't think of any terrestrial discoveries in the U.S. that would compare, but there are pretty sizable finds made, using specialized metal detectors, of cargo/booty from sunken ships in some U.S. nearshore waters.  Don't recall the details, but wasn't there some dispute a few years back about a salvage crew hauling in millions of dollars' worth of gold coins, etc., from a sunken Spanish galleon--a haul that, it was argued, should be returned to Spain?


I loved the tone of excitement that came across in the written reports of the British discovery, by the way.  The experts who were quoted sounded absolutely giddy about it!

[inthelab]

Thanks for the post.

[verysneaky]

I have to out myself very slightly here. As an Anglo-Saxonist, I was over the moon.

[englitprof]

I have to out myself very slightly here. As an Anglo-Saxonist, I was over the moon.

Me too!  I learned about it just before going to class, and we spent some time looking at the pictures on the flicker site.

[big_giant_head]

On the germanic-l listserv, there is currently a mostly-joking discussion of the congruences between this apparently royal hoard and a whole lot of references in Beowulf that could have been directly describing items in it. 

It's not often that anyone finds something that can probably be attributed to one of two or three particular kings (Penda, Wulfhere, Athelred) in a clear time period. 

OK, so much for decorum.  This find is just the coolest thing EVER!

[jacaranda_]

I have to out myself very slightly here. As an Anglo-Saxonist, I was over the moon.

I'm jealous.  I'm over the moon about this, too, but I'm just an early modernist, and I feel like I could be well over the moon and on my way to Jupiter if I were a medievalist.

The connections to Beowulf are actually pretty interesting.  The last segment on his fight with the dragon isn't nearly as interesting in some ways as the fights with Grendel and G's mother.  The thing that does make that last battle interesting is all that damn buried treasure and what it signifies:  basically the annihilation of an entire race of people who have been destroyed by war.  It's all that's left of them.  And there's one sad guy who's the last surviving member of his people, and he buries the treasure, wanders the world for a little while and dies.  And then they want to talk about what it means that the Geats RE-bury all the treasure in Beowulf's barrow and burn a lot of it on his funeral pyre -- that seems very peculiar and wasteful to them.

And when I was talking about it to my students I was making a big deal out of the fact that the treasure has been buried for 300 years before someone steals some items from the hoard and sets off the dragon.  But this stuff has been in the ground for 1700+ years!  It really blows my mind.  Almost more than the bog people.

[babbinacara]

A huge round of applause for Mr Terry Herbert, the metal detectorist and finder, who did the right and ethical thing of informing the Portable Antiquities Scheme staff.
Many a different person would have pawed it out of the ground and flogged it on eBay.

[larryc]

A huge round of applause for Mr Terry Herbert, the metal detectorist and finder, who did the right and ethical thing of informing the Portable Antiquities Scheme staff.
Many a different person would have pawed it out of the ground and flogged it on eBay.

Well under English law he does get to sell it and keep the money, right? I think it is just that the museums get the first right to bid. Or is that wrong?

[kedves]

A huge round of applause for Mr Terry Herbert, the metal detectorist and finder, who did the right and ethical thing of informing the Portable Antiquities Scheme staff.
Many a different person would have pawed it out of the ground and flogged it on eBay.

Well under English law he does get to sell it and keep the money, right? I think it is just that the museums get the first right to bid. Or is that wrong?

According to what I've read elsewhere, the finders get half of the winning price.  Museums are expected to be the bidders.  Mr. Herbert will split his half with the farmer who owns the land.  It is a nice "Ha!" for all the people who have mocked him over the years.

I have only the most casual knowledge of this period and its artifacts.  These things are incredibly gorgeous. 

[llanfair]

Just imagine how these beautiful things will glow when they've been thoroughly cleaned.  Jacaranda, I'm doing the Dark Ages in a survey course just now - great timing for me too!

[wegie]

A huge round of applause for Mr Terry Herbert, the metal detectorist and finder, who did the right and ethical thing of informing the Portable Antiquities Scheme staff.
Many a different person would have pawed it out of the ground and flogged it on eBay.

Well under English law he does get to sell it and keep the money, right? I think it is just that the museums get the first right to bid. Or is that wrong?

Nope, it's treasure trove, it belongs to the Crown. The Crown will pay a price determined by a valuation committee (which will be pretty much the market price) and then it can be sold on.

I'll also be very surprised if it isn't subject to an export restriction. The furthest from Staffordshire it'll be going will be Great Russell Street.