MORE TREASURES FROM SAXON GRAVE

By Martin Neville - Tuesday, February 19, 2008

The latest find, a gold sixth century Gallic coin.

SAXON graves in Shorwell have yielded more treasure.
Island metal detectors unearthed a further 100 objects from the same ploughed-out Anglo-Saxon cemetery where silver and gold jewellery was first discovered by metal detecting enthusiast Stewart Thompson in 2004.
Island coroner John Matthews, heard the latest hoard, uncovered by members of the IW Metal Detecting Club, included a gold sixth century Gallic coin in the name of Anastasius I, which may have come from a nearby warrior grave.
Frank Basford, finds liaison officer of the Portable Antiquities Scheme, said the coin was attributed to the Merovingians dynasty which often imitated Roman coins.
He said it may have been specially made for the grave and could have originated in France, in keeping with the possible Frankish origin of the occupant of the grave.
Declaring the hoard treasure, Mr Matthews said: “It’s very surprising to us these days to think there was such a lot of communication with the continent in these very early dark ages after the collapse of the Roman empire.”
He said “Our whole knowledge over the last ten years has been revolutionised mainly due to metal detecting.
“All the history books relating to the IW are out of date regarding this period. We had a much larger population on the Island, in many more places than we knew of and were much wealthier.”
At a separate hearing, Mr Matthews ruled as treasure another find by Mr Thompson of a silver gilt pendant cross dating back to the 13th century, and a late Bronze Age gold bracelet found by Colin Saunders while diving off the West Wight in June last year.

MORE TREASURES FROM SAXON GRAVE

Weather

Subscribe