There were 1,120 treasure finds in 2016, the highest number since the revised Treasure Act came into law 20 years ago

A glorious jewel made from hundreds of tiny pieces of garnet set in gold to form geometric and animal shapes lay for 1,400 years on the breast of an unknown woman until her Norfolk grave was rediscovered by a first-year university student. The item was among a record number of treasure finds reported by the British Museum in the year 2016.

The pendant and other jewels and coins buried with the woman were among the spectacular discoveries mainly made by metal detectorists – including a hoard of 158 bronze age axes and ingots, the largest of its kind to be found in Yorkshire; and more than 2,000 silver Roman coins in Piddletrenthide, Dorset, which the finder and a local archaeologist managed to lift together with the clay pot holding them and the entire block of soil in which it was buried, so it could be studied at the British Museum.



Facebook Twitter Pinterest The Piddletrenthide hoard being excavated in a laboratory at the British Museum. Photograph: British Museum

The grave of the Norfolk woman, who probably had aristocratic or royal connections, was found by Tom Lucking, then a landscape history student at the University of East Anglia. He has since graduated with a first and found work as an archaeologist. His student loan debt repayments will be made considerably easier by the £145,000 valuation recently agreed at the British Museum for his treasure, which will be shared with the landowner.



Lucking was detecting on a ploughed field at Winfarthing, a site with no record of any Anglo-Saxon settlement. He first found a bronze bowl, which he then realised lay at the feet of a skeleton. He stopped digging and called in the county archaeology unit.

The excavation revealed decayed bones barely identifiable as a young adult woman. She had been buried with her treasures, which included the gold and garnet pendant, two identical Merovingian gold coins made into pendants, two gold beads and a delicate filigree ornamented cross, suggesting the woman may have been one of the earliest Anglo-Saxon converts to Christianity.

The coins, which showed no sign of wear, dated the burial to between AD650 and AD675. They were identical to one found in the grave of a woman near Ipswich, suggesting intriguing connections with the Frankish kingdom.

Tim Pestell, senior curator of archaeology at Norfolk Museums service, which is to begin fundraising to acquire the items, said: “This is one of those rare finds which really does rewrite history: a burial of the highest stature, in a part of Norfolk where we would not have expected to find it, with objects imported from the continent and which connect her to finds at other sites.

“The garnet work is of the highest quality – not quite as good as Sutton Hoo, which stands alone, but certainly comparable to the Staffordshire hoard.”

Work continues at the site, which has been identified as a cemetery, possibly with a nearby settlement, evidence of which has been almost obliterated by centuries of farming. The scattered remains of her family may still lie in the soil.

There was so much metal in two hoards of axes and bronze ingots found at Driffield in east Yorkshire that they are thought to have been a metal worker’s collection that was ready to be melted and recycled.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Part of the Driffield hoard. Photograph: British Museum

They were found four metres apart by Dave Haldenby, a retired social worker, who was previously more interested in medieval history and had been hoping to find Viking lead weights.

He uncovered the smaller hoard of 27 axes and ingots and, after researching the late bronze age of about 3,000 years ago, returned to survey the surrounding area for scraps of metal. He found a further 158 axes and ingots, which Hull Museum plans to acquire.

There were 1,120 treasure finds in 2016, the highest number since the revised Treasure Act came into law 20 years ago. While “treasure” must by law be reported, the act simplified the definition. Although local coroners still hold inquests to declare the discoveries as treasure, they no longer have to determine the motives and circumstances in which the objects were hidden or lost.



Over the past 20 years, 14,000 treasure finds have been reported under the act, of which 40% are in UK museums. They include the spectacular Staffordshire hoard, with its exquisitely worked gold, and the Frome hoard of more than 52,000 Roman coins stuffed into a giant clay jar, the largest collection found in one container.

In addition, there were 81,914 smaller archaeological finds – including a 17th-century dog collar whose inscription showed that the large hunting dog it was made for was owned by Samuel Birch, a former civil war major who was once thrown out of church for nonconformist preaching.

The collar was among the objects reported through a network of local finds officers across the country under the voluntary portable antiquities scheme. The initiative, operated in tandem with the treasure scheme through the British Museum, has recorded more than 1.3m objects, including buttons, stone axes, belt buckles, bits of horse harness, pilgrims’ badges and children’s toys.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Some of the 2,000 Roman coins found in a clay pot in Dorset. Photograph: British Museum

Many of the items have almost no commercial value but contain great historic importance, helping to identify hundreds of sites and settlements. The database has inspired more than 600 research projects, including 126 doctorates.

Most detectorists are signed up to a code of practice that requires them to stop digging and call in the experts over significant discoveries. They must also report all finds.

The director of the British Museum, Hartwig Fischer, said the scheme was rare in Europe. “You let people follow their passion with a couple of rules you should abide by. Everyone does best.”