| Welcome to the third newsletter reporting on Finding our Past, the voluntary recording scheme for portable antiquities in England and Wales. The second issue of the newsletter was published in Summer 2000. Since then the Scheme has continued to be very successful, and this was recognised when it picked up two awards at the British Archaeological Awards last November. The pilot scheme covers about half of England and the whole of Wales. We are currently seeking funding to try and extend the project over the whole of these countries, which will mean that all chance finders can record their finds and participate in the Scheme. |
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Dorset: late Victorian fake The finial is in fact an example of a 'Billy and Charley' or Shadwell Dock forgery. The finds liaison officer, Ciorstaidh Hayward Trevarthen, realised the item was not quite what it was trying to appear and James Robinson of the British Museum confirmed the suspicion. Around 2000 such items were produced in the late 1850s by two enterprising London men (William Smith and Charles Eaton) who found a high demand for 'Medieval' antiquities dug up from the Thames mud. They were often bought by collectors and a number are thought to have been buried in several places across the country. For more information, please see Marsden, B M, 1999 'The Shadwell Shams - the story of 'Billy and Charley' Forgeries', Coins and Antiquities, March 1999, pps. 41-3. |
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Somerset: local club donates £1000 for display case
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Surrey: seal of medieval Kentish sheriff found
As for Fulk, there is only one individual known with that name. He was involved in a transaction concerning lands in Cobham, near Rochester, in 1236. From then on he was involved in other land deals in the Maidstone area. During the 1260s he was sheriff of Kent, but was unsuccessful in carrying out his duties of collecting taxes and delivering the money to the Exchequer because of severe civil unrest, usually known as 'The Barons' War'. In 1274, then described as a former tax collector, he received payment of £5 for expenses incurred in his work as collector and in 1277, the final reference shows him working as a judge, making enquiries at Maidstone concerning a case of murder. We are most grateful to David Williams for drawing our attention to this object, Mary Saaler for carrying out the research on the piece and the finder David Hunt. Notes concerning this item have also appeared in Surrey Archaeological Society Bulletin, 333, Nov. '99; and Surrey Archaeological Collections (forthcoming). The seal is a rare example of an archaeological find which can be linked to historical sources. The seal was donated by the finder to the Surrey Archaeological Society in 1997, and it is currently with East Surrey Museum (01883 340275). |
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Hampshire: Rare Bronze Age bangle discovered Bracelets of this type and other mid-Bronze Age 'ornament horizon' artefacts are not common finds and this is an important regional and national addition to our knowledge of this period. Finds of this form of bracelet concentrate in the southern counties of Hampshire, Wiltshire, Dorset and West Sussex and examples are also known from Suffolk and Norfolk. Whilst some of the known bracelets come from hoards containing items such as torcs, pins, axes, palstaves and other mid-Bronze Age artefacts, no other objects were found in association with this example. Incised decorated bracelets form part of a North European tradition with close parallels known from sites in northern France. This has led to the suggestion that the examples from southern England may be imported from northern France, although they could have been made in Britain. |
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North Lincolnshire: increased co-operation with local metal detecting club leads to large scale survey So far some surprising finds have been made. These include a fine Anglo-Saxon small long brooch, a very unusual Anglo-Saxon strip brooch and a stunning swivel (used to keep a strap or string from becoming twisted or tangled) of early medieval date (late 11th century/ early 12th century AD). The areas searched are very productive and the finds cover all periods of history. As the club members are now also picking up pottery and recording negative results, that is areas searched where nothing was found, patterns are starting to emerge which will undoubtedly shed more light on the nature of the archaeological landscape. Thanks to the commitment of the members, the club has managed to turn weekly fun outings into a proper survey and therefore a valuable source of archaeological information. |
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North West: an exotic find from Arnside, Cumbria
The style of the face and the lavish use of enamel on the Arnside find are features of eighth century Irish fine metalwork and the early medieval kingdoms of Ireland were the source of these elaborate pieces. Irish vessels, mounts and fittings travelled with the Viking raiders and settlers as loot, traded goods or possibly as gifts and dowry pieces. While often of no value as bullion they were appreciated for their decoration. It is more usual in Britain to find small pieces cut from Irish enamels and decorative bronze work for use as decoration on lead weights, which are relatively common finds from the ninth and tenth centuries. This piece has three holes drilled through it, including a large one through the mouth, showing mechanical re-attachment or reuse. Recycling and adaptation is common in the Scandinavian dominated areas of Britain as well as in the homelands. There are a number of late ninth century Viking silver hoards from Cumbria and Lancashire and the area was extensively settled by people of mixed Irish and Scandinavian roots in the tenth century, all of which provides a background to the loss of this piece. Arnside at Grange Sands is well placed as a port for contacts with eastern Ireland and the Isle of Man. Another bucket mount with a face at each end but without enamel was found some years ago near York, formerly the capital of a Scandinavian kingdom. |
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Suffolk: Anglo-Saxon cemetery discovered A few years ago the site was deep ploughed and de-stoned in preparation for the growing of potatoes. Subsequently, Ken Willcox of the East Coast Searchers organised a rally on the field which was held in October 2000. This led to the discovery of a further ten early Anglo-Saxon brooches, which ranged from a single knob to an almost complete large cruciform brooch. A square belt-mount, fragments of two buckles, and a large ring (which was probably used for holding girdle-hangers) were also found (Figure 8). So many early Anglo-Saxon metal finds from one field shows beyond doubt that this was the site of an early Anglo-Saxon cemetery. All the finds have been recorded with Helen Geake (Suffolk finds liaison officer). One brooch looked like it might have been melted on a cremation pyre, and the presence of cremations was confirmed when a badly melted buckle was found. The rest of the finds were from inhumation burials. The graves would originally have been two or three feet deep, showing how much subsoil, along with archaeological features, has been lost due to agriculture over the centuries. Most of the finds date from the sixth century AD, but one narrow cruciform brooch shows that burial had already started in the fifth century. Cemeteries are notoriously difficult to find by any means other than metal detecting or excavation, but they are crucially important for understanding what happened in the mysterious years after the collapse of the Roman Empire. |
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Yorkshire: two coin hoards found at Langtoft
The hoards have now been declared Treasure under the Treasure Act of 1996 and are currently awaiting valuation. |
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Northamptonshire: Anglo-Saxon warrior found in compromising position
Northamptonshire Heritage were able to fund a two day excavation in which the finders, landowner and Rhiannon Harte were involved. This led to the uncovering of a complete skeleton in a shallow grave, with the remainder of the sword including a small amount of the wood scabbard, and a small knife or razor underneath the body. Interestingly, a further body emerged, that of a woman, who appears to have been an earlier burial. The warrior had been placed with his head where the female's (missing) legs would have been. A brief report on this discovery has been published in Portable Antiquities Annual Report, 1999-2000, p. 13, Figure 14. This report is available from the outreach officer (contact details at the back of this newsletter). A full report on the burial has been undertaken by Northamptonshire Archaeology. |
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Norfolk: rare coin finds indicate an Anglo-Saxon site
Last year just over 30% of all finds recorded under the Portable Antiquities Scheme were coins. Recording coin finds is vital for our understanding of coin circulation and distribution at different stages in our history, or for identifying specific sites, as described above. Individual coins can also be important if they represent new varieties: a recent example is a silver denarius of Carausius from near Nottingham which has a previously unrecorded reverse legend, 'RENOVAT RVMAN[..', the latter word a mistake for 'ROMAN[ORVM]'. More details will be published in the British Numismatic Journal Coin Register later this year. |
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West Midlands: Iron Age artefacts
Other Iron Age artefacts include a harness mount which was broken into three pieces, probably by the plough. The metal detectorist who discovered this item found each fragment on three separate occasions and was able to join them together to complete the mount. The finder thus rescued these fragments from further plough damage. The final Iron Age artefact which has been recorded from the West Midlands is a fragment of a glass bead. The bead is of the 'Welwyn' type, where similar style beads were first discovered. The bead is a dark navy colour with white ringlets. The bead appears to have been broken recently, possibly by the plough. Once again the finder rescued this item from further damage. It is through the recording process that our impression of the material culture of the Iron Age in the West Midlands is enhanced and our knowledge of a relatively poorly understood period developed. All the artefacts described show a variety of artistic styles, a number of different manufacturing techniques and the locations of sites of Iron Age activity that that were not known of before. These artefacts are a very small sample of the finds which the West Midlands finds liaison officer, Angie Bolton, records. |
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Wales: Late Iron Age model shield One of the most important finds to be recorded by Philip Macdonald (Finds co-ordinator: Wales) during the first two years of the Welsh pilot Scheme is a copper alloy model of a Late Iron Age shield which was discovered in the mid 1990s near Barmouth in Merionethshire. Although the model shield was discovered several years ago it was only reported after the finder became aware of the Scheme. The oval-shaped model shield is 86mm x 49mm in size and is made from a single sheet of copper-alloy apart from a separate handle which is riveted to its reverse. Model shields are an unusual find type, only a small number are known from the British Isles and none have previously been recorded from Wales. Although they superficially resemble modern, children's toys they are unlikely to have had this function in antiquity. The contexts of those examples of the type recovered during controlled archaeological investigations suggest that they were probably votive items which were deposited during religious rituals. Study of aerial photographs of the model shield's reported findspot suggests a possible archaeological context for its deposition. The aerial photographs contained evidence of a small rectilinear enclosure, which survives as a slight earthwork, on the findspot described by the finder. Potentially, the reporting of the model shield may have resulted in the discovery of a hitherto unrecognised Iron Age site. The model shield from Barmouth shares a number of features in common with other, full-size Iron Age shields found in North Wales. The front of the shield is decorated with several incised motifs including a pair of peltate plaques either side of the boss which recall those on the Moel Hiraddug and Tal-y-Llyn shields. Furthermore, incised lines running across the repoussé elongated oval boss are closely paralleled by the decoration on the Moel Hiraddug shield boss. In the 1970s Dr Hubert Savory, then Keeper of Archaeology at the National Museum of Wales, controversially argued that the similarities of shield fittings discovered from sites in North Wales, including those from Moel Hiraddug and Tal-y-Llyn, suggested that their was a North Welsh regional tradition of metalworking. The discovery of this model shield, which shares several of the characteristics of Savory's proposed North Welsh shield type, lends credence to Savory's suggestion and contributes to current academic debates about how metalworking was organised in Iron Age Britain. A detailed study of both the model shield and its archaeological context is currently being jointly undertaken by both the finder and staff from the National Museums & Galleries of Wales. |
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The Portable Antiquities Scheme
Newsletter 3: Summer 2001
An historic piece of late Victorian fakery was brought along to a finds surgery at the Waterfront Museum in Poole, Dorset. The owners of the find had been told it was dug up at Guildford but had no idea what it was. The object is a cast hollow finial with a human figure depicted on the front and back. The surfaces are highly decorated with chevrons, pellets and other designs.
The seal can be identified with the Kentish family of Peyforer (variously spelt Paisforire, Paynforer or Peyfrer) who held property in Kent from 1086 to at least 1373. The family history can be traced right back to the Domesday book, when Osbert Paisforire was holding lands at Lullingstone, Buckland, Marshborough and Harty.
This mount was made as one of a set mounted on a bronze bowl to hold rings from which the bowl could hang. The back is recessed to hold a ring. A number of similar two headed-mounts have been found in Viking graves in western Norway, and one complete mount from Naerheim with an enamelled panel is very like the Arnside find. On a bowl from Myklebostad, Norway, the figure is completed by small pair of legs below. A magnificent pair of related bucket mounts with staring masks was found in a richly furnished ship-burial at Oseberg in Norway, deposited in 834 AD, which means that they were made in the eighth or early ninth century. Like many decorative pieces found in Viking graves, these bowls, buckets and mounts were not made locally but were exotic imports, brought back from the lands invaded by Scandinavian Vikings from the late eighth century onwards.
In 1988 a metal detectorist found fragments of two early Anglo-Saxon brooches on a site near Saxmundham, Suffolk, which hinted at the possible presence of an early Anglo-Saxon cemetery. Subsequently the site was fieldwalked by the Suffolk Archaeological Unit who found a scatter of flint and medieval pottery, but nothing very exciting.
On the 25th September 2000, the Adviser on Treasure at the Yorkshire Museum, Craig Barclay, received a telephone call from excited detectorists who had found two Roman coin hoards the previous day. The finders had removed the coins but realised the importance of recording the containers while still in the ground. They had left these pots in situ and requested they be excavated by professional archaeologists. Craig contacted the local archaeological unit (Humber Archaeological Partnership) and the pots were duly recorded and recovered.
It was found that the two hoards had been buried near to a Roman road which runs through the area. Examination also suggested that the two pots had been buried at different times. The earlier hoard, comprising a total of 976 denarii, radiates and a large number of nummi, contained only one coin (a nummus of Constantius II as Augustus) post-dating the abdication of Diocletian and Maximian in AD 305. The second parcel comprised 924 nummi. These were almost exclusively reduced issues of the family of Constantine the Great, with the latest coins struck in the mid 320s AD.
The finders of the Weedon warrior.
The first coin, and the oldest in the group, is a denarius of Severus Alexander (AD222-235). It is very worn and pierced at the top of the flan, with a break between the edge and the piercing. This coin is of particular interest because it demonstrates that such coins were still available 250 years after they were struck.
Coins of Severus Alexander (AD222-235) (above) and Julius Nepos (AD474) (right) found at Saxmundham, Norfolk.
An Iron Age lynch pin terminal, one of a number of new Iron Age finds recorded under the Scheme in the West Midlands.
The Late Iron Age model shield from near Barmouth, Merionethshire.
