You may recall that as I was typing last week's blog my colleagues discovered a new copper alloy object. We still didn't know what it was when I finished but shortly afterwards it was revealed to be a bronze spear head.

This is fascinating because it doesn't just appear to be a bronze spear head but a Bronze Age spear head, which would make it perhaps eight hundred or a thousand years older than the rest of the hoard.  We haven't had this confirmed independently yet but Olga Finch, our Curator of Archaeology and I can't see any difference between it and Bronze Age ones we've found locally before.  What we don't know of course is what it meant to the hoard buriers.  Possibilities include everything from its being a revered heirloom to a piece of accidentally found scrap metal.  Perhaps significant is the fact that it lay on the floor of the hoard pit, straight on the earth surface, making it one of the first things thrown into the hole before all the coins and jewellery.

As if that wasn't excitement enough for one week we then found what at first appeared to be a bundle of gold wire but turned out to be a beautiful gold ring.  We've found two finger sized gold "rings" before but apparently both of them might be an ornamental feature of a larger object.  This however looks very ring-like and is quite similar to one we borrowed from a French Iron Age chariot burial for our first hoard exhibition.  We've a meeting here of Iron Age experts on Monday so hopefully I'll be able to let you all know more about these finds after that.


Cheers till then