Rare Bronze Age artefacts dating back 3,400 years discovered by metal detectorist in North Wales

The two moulds used to cast axes during the Middle Bronze Age have now been declared treasure

The bronze mould valves found in Conwy in 2017 date back to the Middle Bronze Age, around 3,400 years ago (Image: Amgueddfa Cymru – National Museum Wales)

A pair of rare artefacts dating back around 3,400 years to the Middle Bronze Age have been declared treasure after they were uncovered in North Wales almost five years ago. The two bronze mould valves were used to cast palstaves (a kind of axe) during the Bronze Age.

They were discovered by George Borrill, from Llandudno Junction, while metal-detecting on rough pastureland in Conwy on August 12, 2017. Prior to Mr Borrill's find, only 17 such moulds had been found in the UK.

Mr Borrill reported his find to Dr Susie White, Finds Officer for the Portable Antiquities Scheme in Wales (PAS Cymru) and the find was subsequently reported as treasure by curatorial staff based at Amgueddfa Cymru – National Museum Wales. At an inquest held at Ruthin County Hall today (June 1), Kate Sutherland, assistant coroner for North Wales east and central, recorded the find as treasure.

The moulds are about eight inches in length and feature a single midrib decoration with a side-loop. The two mould valves, which date back to 1400-1275 BCE, once formed a matching pair, the two locking together – one a positive valve with projecting tenons and the other the negative valve with matching recesses.

The outer surfaces have raised rib and moulding decoration, each of a slightly differing design. Adam Gwilt, Principal Curator for Prehistory at Amgueddfa Cymru – National Museum Wales said: “This is a significant new archaeological find for Wales.

"Moulds such as these are quite rare across Britain. They offer us great insights into the bronze casting traditions operating in North Wales during the Middle Bronze Age.

"The growing evidence for moulds and palstave hoard finds in this area suggests that a range of bronze palstaves with midrib decorations were made here and were then exchanged and transported over long distances at this time, to their place of use. It is likely that the nearby Great Orme Bronze Age copper mines, some of the most important prehistoric mines in Europe and in their heyday during the Middle Bronze Age, provided the local source of copper for bronzesmiths.

"Tin from Cornwall was accessed, to mix with the molten copper to form these bronze artefacts. This matching pair of moulds appears to have been deliberately buried, rather than being recycled at the end of their lives, perhaps during a symbolic act of returning these powerful objects to their place of origin.”

Amgueddfa Cymru – National Museum Wales hopes to acquire this treasure find, following its independent valuation by the Treasure Valuation Committee.

The 'Burton Agnes Chalk Drum': ‘Most Important Prehistoric Discovery in a Century’ Revealed by British Museum

5,000-year-old chalk drum decorated with motifs was discovered in Yorkshire alongside burial of three children

The Burton Agnes chalk drum, chalk ball and bone pin 3005-2890BC. Photograph: British Museum

A 5,000-year-old chalk sculpture discovered in east Yorkshire, due to be displayed at the British Museum, has been described as the most important piece of prehistoric art to be found in Britain in the last century.

The object, which archaeologists have named the “Burton Agnes drum”, is a chalk sculpture which had been decorated with motifs similar to the artistic style at the same time as Stonehenge was built. The drum was discovered alongside the burial of three children.

The drum is hailed to be such an important discovery due to its similarity to a group of objects already in the British Museum’s collection.

The Folkton drums, three barrel-shaped cylinders made of chalk, were found in North Yorkshire buried alongside the remains of a child, and have been part of the British Museum’s collection since 1889. They are, according to the British Museum, some of the “most famous and enigmatic ancient objects ever unearthed in Britain”.

Relatively little is known about the Folkton drums and their context but this new drum, which was found about 15 miles away, sheds new light on them. The exact age of the Folkton drums was never known, with a consensus guess that they were made around 2500 – 2000BC. However, due to new technology and the finding of the new drum, the Folkton drums can be identified as being nearly 500 years older than previously thought.

This new discovery, only the fourth example of its kind known to have survived, is nearly identical to the Folkton drums and can also be described as a chalk drum.

Despite the use of the term ‘drum’, they are not thought to have had a musical function. Instead, they are works of sculptural art, and have been interpreted to be intended as talismans to protect the deceased children they accompanied.

The Burton Agnes drum is due to be displayed to the public for the first time on Thursday, alongside all three Folkton drums, as part of the World of Stonehenge exhibition at the British Museum.

Neil Wilkin, curator of The World of Stonehenge at the British Museum, said the discovery was “truly remarkable”.

“The Folkton drums have long remained a mystery to experts for well over a century, but this new example finally begins to give us some answers. To my mind, the Burton Agnes drum is even more intricately carved and reflects connections between communities in Yorkshire, Stonehenge, Orkney and Ireland,” he said.

“The discovery of the Burton Agnes grave is highly moving. The emotions the new drum expresses are powerful and timeless, they transcend the time of Stonehenge and reflect a moment of tragedy and despair that remains undimmed after 5,000 years,” he added. “We are honoured that the British Museum will be the first place the public will be able to see this important object, and that they will see it alongside 430 other ancient items telling the spectacular story of Stonehenge and the vibrant world in which it was built.”

Mark Allen, the director of Allen Archaeology, said that it has been a “real privilege” to have been involved in its discovery, and took the opportunity to thank the “landowners for their enthusiasm and interest in the project from the outset.”

“When we heard about the find from the team on site and saw the photos of the drum that were messaged over to us, it was clear we were looking at something extraordinary,” he said. “Although the photos did not do it justice, and we were all stunned to see it up close when it came off site.”

Alice Beasley, who first uncovered the drum as an archeologist for Allen Archeology, said discovering it was a “thrilling and humbling” experience. “Seeing the love and effort put into burying the individuals over 5,000 years ago was truly moving,” she said.

The World of Stonehenge exhibition at the British Museum, on display until mid-July, is the UK’s first major exhibition on Stonehenge. Nearly two-thirds of the objects on display will be loaned from 35 lenders across several different countries, including Germany, Denmark and Italy.

 This article was amended on 11 February 2022 to clarify that it is archaeologists who have named the object the “Burton Agnes drum”.

Source: theguardian

Metal Detectorist finds Medieval Gold Brooch with Supernatural Inscriptions

The brooch contains religious and magical inscriptions in Latin and Hebrew.

This gold brooch dates back around 800 years and has a series of Latin and Hebrew inscriptions engraved on it (Image credit: Salisbury and South Wiltshire Museum)

A metal detectorist has discovered a medieval gold brooch with a series of Latin and Hebrew inscriptions. The artifact, found in Wiltshire in the U.K., may have mixed religion and magic in an attempt to give its user protection against illness or supernatural events. 

The Latin inscriptions translate to "Hail Mary full of grace the lord/ is with thee/ blessed art thou amongst women/ and blessed is the fruit of thy womb. Amen." The Hebrew initials for "AGLA" are also inscribed on the brooch and represent Hebrew words that mean "Thou art mighty forever, O Lord." 

The gold brooch dates to sometime between A.D. 1150 and 1400 and may have been used in an attempt to prevent fever, according to a brief report on the brooch published online by the Portable Antiquities Scheme (PAS) and written by Sophie Hawke, a finds liaison officer for PAS. In England and Wales, metal detectorists report their discoveries to the PAS, a government-sponsored organization that publishes reports and images of the finds on its website and sometimes in scholarly journals.

What was it used for? 

Live Science talked with a number of scholars with expertise in medieval history and magic to get their thoughts on what the brooch might have been used for. 

The Hebrew initials that represent the phrase "Thou art mighty forever, O Lord" may be important to the brooch's purpose, some of the scholars said. This phrase "figures prominently in medieval magic," Richard Kieckhefer, a professor of religious studies at Northwestern University, told Live Science in an email. 

He noted that the other prayers engraved on the brooch were common religious prayers at the time. "What I would want to emphasize is that this sort of combination of 'religion' and 'magic' is not unusual," Kieckhefer said, noting that the mixture of religious and magical meanings would have given the brooch special powers in the eyes of the person who created it. 

The Hebrew initials for "AGLA" were "very commonly used in magic, from high ritual magic to protective amulets and charms," Frank Klaassen, a history professor at the University of Saskatchewan, told Live Science in an email. "It is one of many divine names or words of power common in medieval traditions." 

But why would someone wear such a brooch?

"Wearing Bible quotes like this was sometimes done as a way of protecting a person against misfortune," such as fire, sudden death or supernatural forces such as demons, Catherine Rider, a professor of medieval history at the University of Exeter in the U.K., wrote in an email. "It's hard to be sure that it's magical — it's perhaps more in a grey area between what we'd see as magic and religion."

Given the brooch's small size and mention of the Virgin Mary, the person wearing it may have been a woman. With its "small, though elegant, size, I would guess it was used on a woman's garments of some light fabric," Karen Jolly, a history professor at the University of Hawaii at Manoa, told Live Science in an email. "This woman was of sufficient means to have the object or have been given it. Whether she was literate or not, she would know what it said and what it meant," Jolly said, adding that perhaps the brooch served a protective purpose related to pregnancy and childbirth. 

The brooch, with its tiny engraved inscriptions, was well crafted. "My main reaction to the brooch is that it was made by somebody who was highly skilled, and that its first owner, at least, was a pious person who recorded on it both devotion to the Virgin and a charm to protect them against various threats," Anne Lawrence-Mathers, a history professor at the University of Reading in the U.K., wrote in an email. 

The brooch is now going through the Treasure Act, as required by British law. It's a process by which a determination is made as to what will happen to the artifact. It may end up being placed in a local museum depending on a number of factors. For instance, one possible outcome is that the metal detectorist may be given a monetary reward and the artifact may be handed over to the government, which could place it in a museum. 

Originally published on Live Science.

Metal Detectorists Uncover 1,400-Years-old Largest Hoard of Anglo-Saxon Gold Coins in England

A hoard of 131 gold coins and a number of other gold objects dating back 1,400 years ago stand to be the largest hoard of Anglo-Saxon gold coins ever found in England.

In A.D. 600, England, still ununited, was divided into several smaller Anglo-Saxon kingdoms. One of the most important of these was East Angles (modern-day Norfolk and Suffolk), which in later centuries would prove to yield a great number of treasures from antiquity.

These treasures include the famed Sutton Hoo Anglo-Saxon ship burial grounds discovered in Suffolk in 1938—and now, the more recent said stash of gold coins, which was found in a field in West Norfolk between the years 1990 and 2020—starting with just a single gold coin found before the introduction of the Treasures Act (in 1996), meaning it was not considered part of a group.

The majority of the objects in the hoard, though, were found between 2014 and 2020 by a single metal detectorist who wished to remain anonymous. The landowner also requested anonymity. The finder reported the stash to authorities in accord with the Treasures Act, which dictates that any two or more coins containing at least 10% precious metal must be turned in. Should the Crown wish to acquire the items, the finder is to be compensated per market value.

Intriguingly, 10 of the 131 coins were found by a former policeman who, instead of reporting the discovery, tried to sell the coins, passing them off as single finds from a number of different sites. His marketing efforts were uncovered, however, and he was found guilty in 2017, sentenced to 16 months in prison, and dismissed from the police, the British Museum stated. Two of the coins, he did sell, however, which disappeared into the antiquities trade.

The said hoard, buried after A.D. 600, are mostly Frankish tremisses, which were not yet produced in East Anglia by that date; also included were nine gold solidi (a larger coin from the Byzantine Empire worth three tremisses); four other gold objects were also among the treasures: a gold bracteate (a type of stamped pendant), a small gold bar, and two other gold pieces believed to be parts of larger items of jewelry, the museum added.

The region of East Angles was one of the most bountiful in terms of archaeological yields through metal detecting. Previously, the largest hoard of coins from this period was a purse containing 101 coins found at Crondall in Hampshire in 1828, which had been disturbed before the discovery and may have contained even more coins. This find, buried around A.D. 640, contained a mixture of Anglo-Saxon, Frankish, and Frisian coins, along with a single coin of the Byzantine Empire minted in Constantinople.

Far and away the most famous discovery from this period, though, is the Sutton Hoo ship burial in Suffolk, which dates somewhere between 610 and 640. The site housed 37 gold coins, three blank gold discs of the same size, two small gold ingots, and several other gold items.

Source: https://www.theepochtimes.com/metal-detect...

Ancient DNA study reveals large scale migrations into Bronze Age Britain

A major new study of ancient DNA has traced the movement of people into southern Britain during the Bronze Age. In the largest such analysis published to date, scientists examined the DNA of nearly 800 ancient individuals. Publication in Nature on December 22, 2021.

One of the DNA samples used in the study came from the human remains excavated in Wervershoof-Zwaagdijk by Professor Modderman in 1961.

Sustained contacts

The new study, led by the University of York, Harvard Medical School, and the University of Vienna, with input from Leiden researchers, shows that people moving into southern Britain around 1300‒800 BC were responsible for around half the genetic ancestry of subsequent populations.

The combined DNA and archaeological evidence suggests that, rather than a violent invasion or a single migratory event, the genetic structure of the population changed through sustained contacts between mainland Britain and Europe over several centuries, such as the movement of traders, intermarriage, and small scale movements of family groups.
The study finds evidence that the new migrants became thoroughly mixed in to the Southern British population in the period 1000‒875 BC.

33 individuals

In this study the results are reported of the analysis of 33 individuals from the Netherlands. The sampling of the Dutch Individuals is part of a research project by Prof. em. Harry Fokkens of the Leiden Faculty of Archaeology, and drs. Eveline Altena of the Leiden University Medical Centre in cooperation with a number of Dutch researchers. Most of the samples were provided by the National Museum of Antiquities (dr. Luc Amkreutz) and the Provincial depot of Noord-Holland (mr. Jean Roefstra). 

Extensive networks

One of the interesting results came from a Middle Bronze Age grave recently excavated at Westwoud-Binnenwijzend by a combined developer-led project of ARCHOLbv (Leiden, drs. Adrie Tol) and ADC (Amersfoort, dr. Wouter Roessingh). This female individual had a genetic signature that suggested possible provenance in Western France. Additional isotope research by dr. Lisette Kootker (VU University Amsterdam) also reported in the study, confirmed this hypothesis. 

“This indicates that migrants or social partners from France also reached Bronze Age West-Frisa. It is an clear indication of the extensive social and economic networks that existed in the Bronze Age” professor Fokkens stated. 

The Dutch contribution to this study was initiated by the Leiden University Bakels Fund (Harry Fokkens, Eveline Altena and Barbara Veselka). The isotope study was co-funded by the Province of Noord-Holland and by the Farmers of the Coast project led by prof. Harry Fokkens and prof. Corrie Bakels of the Faculty of Archaeology of Leiden University (NWO project 360-60-100).