The treasure consists of around 15,000 coins (gold, silver, and bronze) as well as jewelry, pepper pots, silver spoons, ladles, a vase, bowls, a beaker, and a unique body chain. Lawes and farmer Peter Whatling split the £1.75 million payout, the equivalent of $4.6 million today. Hoxne Hoard on display at the British Museum. He uncovered a bunch of spoons and coins and decided to contact the police and the Suffolk County Council. In 1992, another metal detectorist, Eric Lawes, found the hoard on a farm in Hoxne, Suffolk, while looking for a hammer. It could have been the property of a wealthy Roman family living in Britain at this unstable time. This has led historians to believe that the treasure was buried to protect the owner’s wealth. This period saw the Anglo-Saxon “barbarians” beginning to invade, general economic decline, withdrawal of the Roman army, and general misrule. The Hoxne Hoard dates to the 4th and 5th centuries AD when Rome was losing control of Britain. They accused each other of greed and parted ways on bad terms. Since the money had to be split between the two men, it caused a very public falling out.
Under the Treasure Act of 1996, the Treasure Valuation Committee paid out the equivalent of $4 million to Terry Herbert and Fred Johnson. Historians don’t know who buried it and for what purpose. There were no coins or women’s jewelry in the hoard. It contains Christian objects like crosses, gold strips with inscriptions, gold sheets, a silver helmet, sword hilt fittings, sword pommel caps, and scabbard pendants. The treasure has a strong militaristic character. Apart from the 4kg of gold, the silver weighs another 1.7kg. Today, the hoard totals 4,600 gold, silver, and garnet items. The archaeologists discovered a couple of hundred gold objects.įollow-up excavations in 20 found more treasure. English Heritage, in collaboration with Birmingham Archaeology, launched a full-scale excavation of the field with Johnson’s permission. Photo: David Rowan/Birmingham Museum and Art GalleryĪuthorities uncovered the hoard in 2009 in Lichfield, Staffordshire after Terry Herbert, a hobbyist in a metal detection club, came across gold artifacts in landowner Fred Johnson’s field.
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