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Found in 1979 on Gallows Hill in Thetford, Norfolk, the Thetford Hoard was originally believed to have been buried in the second half of the 4th century AD. Now Ellen Swift from the University of Kent has re-examined the components of the hoard, suggesting that it was more likely buried in the 5th century AD, during a time of great upheaval in Britain after the withdrawal of Roman authority.
The hoard is composed primarily of gold jewellery, including the pictured buckle as well as finger-rings, bracelets, and necklaces. There were also 33 silver spoons, many engraved with religious motifs and inscriptions. These inscriptions confirm that many of the spoons in the hoard were votive offerings, and indeed the site where it was found was probably a shrine. At the time of its discovery, the British Museum team in charge of analysing the hoard (Catherine Johns and Tim Potter) were unable to find late Roman parallels for many of the objects, and their most important parallels for dating purposes came from other hoards. Dating using hoard objects is not ideal, however, as these artefacts are not necessarily buried around the same time as their production. Other scholarly studies have shown that hoards are often accumulated over long periods and contain objects of widely differing date. In her reanalysis of the hoard, Ellen predominately focused on comparisons with objects from burial contexts, where the dating of objects is seen as more secure. She also benefited from the accumulation of more published evidence in the intervening 45 years.
Ellen found that many of the Thetford artefacts had parallels with objects from the Continent, and that some of these were only found in contexts dated to the 5th century and later. Overall, the contexts of parallel objects ranged in date from the late 4th century through to the early 6th century. Categorising many of the hoard’s jewellery items into four probable time periods, she found that, on the whole, the wear present on each object corresponded well with its age (that is, the older objects had more wear than those with a younger date). Archaeological evidence showed, too, that while most of the activity on the site dated to the 4th century, the last fill of an enclosure ditch dated to AD 480±60. Accumulating all the evidence, Ellen believes the hoard was probably buried in the first half of the 5th century (420s-440s).
If the hoard is indeed from the 5th century, how does that change its interpretation? The disparate origins of many of the items highlight the fact that, despite the lack of Roman authority, Roman culture continued to flourish in at least some parts of Britain. As emphasised by Ellen in her recent paper (in the Journal of Roman Archaeology: https://doi.org/10.1017/S1047759424000278): ‘Most of the jewellery is generically “Mediterranean Roman” in style and speaks to a shared culture among elites that had a wide geographical reach.’ It is also suggested that shrines such as Thetford may have been important centres of regional power after the collapse of Roman government in Britain.
Text: Rebecca Preedy / Image: The Trustees of the British Museum
