Needless to say - the British were lucky in terms of archeology, and how! Here you have Stonehenge, and menhirs, and ancient burial mounds, and the finds are one more valuable than the other. Among them are the unique helmets of worldly horsemen, and barbarian kings, swords made of Damascus steel and silver brooches of Roman legionnaires, and there is nothing to say about the Thames, almost half of the most valuable swords of the Royal Arsenal were recovered from the bottom of this river! Among the finds there, there is enough of both gold and silver, even if it is found there and not in tons or tens of kilograms, as in Ancient Egypt. The British themselves, especially the landowners, have long acquired detailed maps of their land plots and regularly comb them to find ancient artifacts and, I must say, very many of them are lucky!
One of the most remarkable treasures of recent times was found in Staffordshire, and immediately received the name "Staffordshire Treasure". This is one of the largest and most interesting archaeological finds in the history of mankind and at the same time the largest find in the UK in terms of the amount of gold. At first, the treasure contained 1,500 thousand small parts and large things made of precious metals, and then archaeologists found the second part of the treasure, at the moment the total number of finds is 3,000. All this was done using the most complicated filigree technique. Scientists have counted in it more than 300 overlays on sword hilts, 92 tops of hilts and 10 pendants for scabbards. Among all this, not a single item was found that belonged to a woman. Only three of the items that were found had nothing to do with military affairs. Moreover, it is again surprising (although not so surprising if you think about it!) That only the golden details of swords were buried in the ground, and the swords themselves … somewhere … were "used". The fact that the pommel is 92 suggests that this is the property of a whole squad, because the sword at that time was worth a fortune, especially, decorated with gold. The fact that the scabbard was also trimmed with gold overlays indicates that all these 92 knights were not ordinary people and, nevertheless, lost their swords!
This treasure was found by Terry Herbert, a farmer who loved to “walk” with a metal detector, and for some reason he spent his search on the field with another farmer, his neighbor Fred Jones. That is how he became a happy treasure hunter and honestly received his earned 50% of the value of the find. Now it was necessary to find out how much all these treasures were worth. An independent commission appointed by the Minister of Culture was to evaluate all these items from this warehouse, which many museums wished to acquire. After the expert assessment was completed, the commission determined its cost at 3 million 285 thousand pounds. Each of the farmers received 1 million 6,425 thousand pounds, tax-free, which caused an unprecedented excitement in the country and a demand for metal detectors of various capacities.
This treasure was found on July 5, 2009, and this treasure remained in the earth for 1300 years. But that treasure still has many mysteries that have not been answered so far. Scientists agreed only that the treasure was hidden in the 7-8 century. Who and why buried such an amount of gold in the ground is not clear, just as it is not clear why the treasure was buried so shallowly.
The Staffordshire treasure was most like a sacrifice. According to legend, the ancient Germans hid such things in the ground in order to open the way to the world of the dead, in order to atone for their sins in this way. In this case, it must be said that the owner of this treasure sinned a lot and, moreover, was an obvious pagan.
Scientists classify the Staffordshire Treasure as one of the famous masterpieces of British art. According to experts, these hats, dishes and jewelry should have belonged to the Anglo-Saxon elite. Well, most of the items date back to the 7th century.
The total amount of gold was 5 kilograms, and silver was 2.5 kilograms. Also next to this treasure were found the bones of a young warrior, they lay there for 13 centuries. The warrior had a broken jaw, a cervical vertebra, he was also hit on the head, and the total number of blows was 33. That is, they beat him for a long time and with taste! And it is a pity that we will never know what relation he had to this treasure. Well, these treasures themselves were bought by the Birmingham Museum of Art, as well as the Museum of Pottery and Art Gallery.
Scientists believe that gold came to these places from Byzantium. As a result of studies of finds from pomegranate, scientists found that the products were made with tools that are 1300 years old. Also, these instruments were found 150 kilometers from the treasure. Where Terry found the treasure, scientists continued to look for something that would somehow help them understand why the treasure was buried here. During geophysical analysis, they found a curved line in the same place where the treasure was found. But, alas, they did not find anything there. Many conclusions were drawn from the results of the study of the treasure, but so far (if not forever!) They are very superficial.
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For example, it is obvious that the ridge-shaped pendant was made by a very skillful craftsman, since its size did not exceed four centimeters. They also found two crosses and a plate of gold with two eagles, which were separated by a fish, and on which there was a quote from the Bible.
Christianity in Great Britain came along with the Roman conquerors. But as soon as their power began to fade away, Christianity also began to give up its positions. But in the era of the Anglo-Saxons, it was revived thanks to missionaries, many of whom came from Ireland or from Europe. K. Jolly, an expert on popular religion of the Anglo-Saxons, writes: "Conversion was perceived as a spiritual battle." Where there is war, there is also a battle for souls. The crosses in it were of great importance and acted as important combat symbols, including in battles, where they were used to overshadow the fighting warriors. Of the two crosses found in the treasure, one is of particular interest: it was deliberately bent and folded, like many other Staffordshire items. Perhaps this was done on purpose in order, thus, to "kill" the fighting power of this cross, which was sent down to him from heaven?
This version seems even more convincing if we consider the gold plate that turned out to be here, also folded in half. The same Bible verse was printed on both sides of the plate. It was clearly taken from the so-called Vulgate - the Bible translated into Latin, and it may be that it was a kind of amulet, a protective spell. Apparently, even those items from this treasure that do not seem to have a direct relationship to weapons could be helpers on the battlefield, since in the opinion of those people they possessed magical properties.
Someone has hidden such a large amount of treasure, and for what reasons. The place for the treasure could not have been chosen by chance, perhaps it was then quite deaf - or, on the contrary, clearly visible. Maybe they even marked him somehow in order to find it later - or, on the contrary, they sacrificed the treasure to the gods, and hurried to cover up all possible traces to it. Well, they could bury anything: a ransom, a trophy of war, or even an offering to the gods. Perhaps in a later era, someone hid the family heirlooms of the Anglo-Saxons in this cache.
We know that a bloody battle once took place on the spot where Lichfield was standing, and it is very possible that these were her trophies, which were buried in the ground … for various purposes that we can only imagine. However, the most important thing in this case is that they were generally buried, and then found, and today we can admire these products of ancient masters.
