Staffordshire Hoard: Largest Anglo-Saxon Gold Find (c. 650)

The Staffordshire Hoard is the largest collection of Anglo-Saxon gold and silver metalwork ever found. Discovered by a metal detectorist near Lichfield in July 2009, it contains more than 3,500 pieces, almost all of them fittings ripped from swords, helmets and other war-gear, buried around 650–675 in the kingdom of Mercia. It has transformed what historians know about the warrior elites of 7th-century England and the craftsmanship that served them.

Discovery in 2009

On 5 July 2009 Terry Herbert, an amateur metal detectorist, was searching a recently ploughed field near the village of Hammerwich, a few kilometres south-west of Lichfield in Staffordshire. Over five days he recovered so many gold objects that he reported the find to the local Finds Liaison Officer of the Portable Antiquities Scheme.

Archaeologists from Birmingham Archaeology and Staffordshire County Council excavated the field over the following weeks. Ploughing had already scattered the objects through the topsoil, and no trace of a container, building or grave was found. On 24 September 2009 a coroner’s inquest declared the material “treasure” under the Treasure Act 1996, which meant it belonged to the Crown and could be acquired by museums.

The find was announced to the public that same week and drew huge crowds when items went on display at Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery. In November 2009 the Treasure Valuation Committee valued the hoard at £3.285 million. Birmingham Museums and the Potteries Museum and Art Gallery in Stoke-on-Trent raised the sum with help from the National Heritage Memorial Fund, the Art Fund and many private donors, completing the purchase in 2010. The reward was divided between Herbert and the landowner, Fred Johnson.

In late 2012, after the field was ploughed again, archaeologists recovered roughly 90 more pieces of metal, most of which were judged to belong to the same hoard.

What the hoard contains

The hoard is not a random collection of treasure. Its most striking feature is that it consists overwhelmingly of military equipment, and in particular of the decorative fittings from sword hilts. Researchers have identified dozens of gold and silver sword pommels, hundreds of hilt collars and plates, and fittings from seaxes, the single-edged knives carried by Anglo-Saxon warriors.

Other important objects include:

• A helmet, broken into hundreds of small silver and gilded fragments, including a crest and cheek-pieces decorated with stamped foil showing warriors and animals. Specialists spent years identifying the pieces, and two replicas based on the research were unveiled in 2018.
• A large gold cross, folded up, probably for processional use or to decorate a book or altar.
• A gold strip with a Latin inscription taken from the Bible (Numbers 10:35, also found in Psalm 68), asking God to rise up and scatter his enemies.
• Hundreds of garnet cloisonné pieces, in which thin gold walls hold thousands of tiny, precisely cut garnets, showing a level of goldsmithing comparable to the finest objects from the Sutton Hoo ship burial.

Equally striking is what the hoard lacks. There are almost no dress items such as brooches or buckles, no coins and very few objects linked to women. Blades themselves are absent: someone had deliberately removed the precious fittings and left the iron weapons behind.

The main figures, as given in the published research and the 2009 valuation, are summarised below.

Dating, Mercia and warfare

The research programme that followed the discovery, published in 2019, concluded that the objects were made over a long period, from the later 6th century to the mid-7th century. Some pieces show signs of wear and repair over decades. The hoard was probably put into the ground around 650–675, although the date of burial can only be estimated from the latest objects in it.

At that time the area lay in the heart of Mercia, the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of the English Midlands. The site is close to Watling Street, the old Roman road that was still a major route, and not far from Lichfield, later the seat of the Mercian bishops, and Tamworth, a later royal centre.

The mid-7th century was a period of almost constant warfare. Penda, the pagan king of Mercia (died 655), fought and killed several neighbouring rulers, including the Northumbrian kings Edwin in 633 and Oswald in 642, and kings of East Anglia. Penda himself was killed by Oswiu of Northumbria at the Battle of the Winwaed in 655, after which Mercia was briefly under Northumbrian control before Penda’s son Wulfhere restored its independence around 658. The account of these wars by Bede provides the main written background for the hoard, though no text mentions it directly.

The hoard sheds light on how warfare and power worked in early Anglo-Saxon England. Kings and lords bound their warriors with gifts of richly decorated weapons and gold. Poems such as Beowulf, preserved in a later manuscript (see the Beowulf manuscript), describe rulers as “ring-givers” and warriors who carried gold-hilted swords. The Staffordshire objects show that such descriptions were not poetic exaggeration.

The sheer number of sword fittings suggests that the hoard drew on the equipment of many warriors, perhaps a large part of an elite war band, or several. Many scholars therefore believe it represents spoils taken from defeated enemies, perhaps after one or more battles, or tribute handed to a victorious king. The removal of the fittings fits a practice of stripping valuable metal from captured weapons.

The Christian objects, including the cross and the inscribed strip, raise further questions. They may have come from Christian opponents, or from Christian warriors on the same side. The inscription itself, a battle prayer, shows how Christian texts were used in a military context. Mercia was officially pagan under Penda but became Christian within a few years of his death.

Theories about why it was buried

Archaeologists agree that the hoard was deliberately assembled and buried, but they do not agree on why. The main explanations are:

• War booty or tribute collected by a Mercian king or his followers and hidden for safekeeping in a time of conflict.
• A store of bullion, gathered to be melted down and turned into new objects, perhaps by a goldsmith or for a royal treasury.
• A ritual deposit or offering, given up to a god or marking a victory, as hoards of weapons were in parts of Scandinavia.

Because the objects were scattered by ploughing, the original arrangement in the ground is lost. Whoever buried the hoard never came back for it, which may mean that they died, lost power, or intended it to stay buried.

Research and conservation

The hoard arrived in museum laboratories as more than 3,500 mostly small and often crushed pieces. A multi-year research project led by Barbican Research Associates, with conservators at Birmingham Museum and specialists from many universities, cleaned, catalogued and studied every fragment. They joined pieces into larger objects and analysed the gold, garnets and techniques used.

The main academic publication appeared in 2019. Analysis of the gold showed varying levels of purity, consistent with recycling of older metal. Studies of the garnets have suggested that some came from as far away as India or Sri Lanka, showing the long-distance trade networks that reached 7th-century England.

Key people

Terry Herbert, the detectorist from Burntwood, made the find and reported it promptly, which allowed professional excavation before the site could be looted. His conduct is often cited as a model for responsible metal detecting under the Portable Antiquities Scheme.

Penda (died 655) is the Mercian king most often linked with the hoard in popular accounts, because his wars produced exactly the kind of captured war-gear it contains. His son Wulfhere (reigned c. 658–675), who ruled Mercia as a Christian king, is another candidate, since the burial date may fall within his reign. Neither connection can be proved.

The archaeologists and curators who studied the find, including Chris Fern, Tania Dickinson and Leslie Webster, edited the 2019 publication that set out the current scholarly understanding of the hoard.

Myths and facts

Myth: The hoard was a buried royal grave like Sutton Hoo. Fact: No human remains, coffin or burial structure were found. It was a hoard of objects, not a grave.

Myth: It is mostly jewellery. Fact: Almost everything is war-gear, especially sword fittings. Personal jewellery is nearly absent.

Myth: The hoard can be linked with a specific battle. Fact: Many battles of the period are possible, but there is no evidence tying the hoard to a single named event.

Timeline

• c. 550–650: Most objects in the hoard are made.
• 655: Penda of Mercia is killed at the Battle of the Winwaed.
• c. 650–675: The hoard is probably buried near Watling Street.
• 5 July 2009: Terry Herbert finds the first gold objects.
• 24 September 2009: A coroner declares the find treasure.
• November 2009: The hoard is valued at £3.285 million.
• 2010: Birmingham and Stoke-on-Trent museums complete its purchase.
• Late 2012: Further pieces are recovered after fresh ploughing.
• 2019: The main research volume is published.

Why it matters

The Staffordshire Hoard is a rare, direct view of the wealth and violence of 7th-century England. It confirms that the gold-adorned weapons of heroic poetry were real, reveals the skill of Anglo-Saxon goldsmiths, and shows how war, gift-giving and religion were bound together as rival kingdoms such as Mercia and Northumbria fought for supremacy.