treasure

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This week: Hoards

No one knows for certain why Viking Age people chose to bury their most treasured possessions underground. According to one 13th-century source, the influential Icelandic poet Snorri Sturluson, they did it because Odin – the Norse god who oversees Valhalla – had decreed that a man will have the use in the afterlife of any treasure he buried while still alive. More recently, however, archaeologists and historians have preferred more earthbound explanations for the presence in the British Isles of so many Viking Age 'hoards'.

Image: West Yorkshire Archaeology Advisory Service

Highlights of the latest Treasure Report

The most recent Treasure Annual Report, which covers finds made in 2018, has been released by the British Museum. In total, 1,094 cases were reported as Treasure for that year, comprising over 20,906 individual artefacts. Of those reported, 347 have…

Opposite A recreation of the Sutton Hoo excavation and the imprint of the ship as it appears in The Dig. above Basil Brown, discoverer of the Sutton Hoo ship burial.

Sutton Hoo Quiz

At what event did Edith Pretty, Sutton Hoo’s owner, get chatting with historian Vincent Redstone, a meeting that began the chain of events which led to the site’s excavation?

Left A hoard of 63 gold and one silver coin, spanning the late 15th and 16th centuries in date, has been discovered in the New Forest area by a family gardening during lockdown.

Green fingers and golden finds: how lockdown gardening led to a host of new discoveries

Between March and June of last year, many of us found ourselves spending a lot more time at home – and, if you are lucky enough to have outdoor space, in the garden. The British Museum’s Portable Antiquities Scheme has since announced a flurry of archaeological discoveries made by members of the public digging at home, some of which were described in their latest annual report. Current Archaeology's Carly Hilts explores some of the highlights.