The full report on 'the most important Anglo-Saxon find in history’ is now out, after 10 years of research. The book - The Staffordshire Hoard: an Anglo-Saxon Treasure edited by C. Fern, T. Dickinson and L. Webster, and published by the Society of Antiquaries of London as part of their research series in 2019 was the outcome of a project 'Contextualising Metal-Detected Discoveries: Staffordshire Anglo-Saxon Hoard' (Historic England Project 5892). The assessment and analysis project ran between 2011 and 2017. The hoard was made up of golden fittings from up to 150 swords, gold and garnet elements of a very high status seax, a spectacular gilded silver helmet, an impressive 30cm-long golden cross, a beautiful gold and garnet pectoral cross.\ The Staffordshire Hoard: An Anglo-Saxon Treasure, Blurb:
The Staffordshire hoard was discovered by a metal detectorist in 2009 and consisted of over 3500 items, making it the largest collection of Anglo-Saxon gold and silver treasure ever found.Rather than "telling the story of [...] the six-year research project", let us hope that it actually publishes its elements in as full a fashion as required, with photos, good descriptions, technological detail, analyses and so on. But if there are over 3,500 items, and the monograph has just 640 pages, I fear that there is not going to be the sort of coverage that modern analysis requires, just some superficial listing. I'll get it and see nevertheless, particularly interested to see how the nonsense-reconstruction of that helmet is presented. The blurbs I've seen so far suggest though that they've gone more for narrativisation than setting out the basic evidence first as a basis for these interpretations.
This beautiful new book tells the story of the hoard’s discovery, acquisition and the six-year research project that pieced its fragments back together, identified them and explored their manufacture. Key chapters discuss the decoration and meaning of the hoard’s intricate ornaments, the techniques of the Anglo-Saxon craftsmen, the religious and historical background together with the hoarding practice in Britain and Europe, to place this exceptional hoard in context.
The beautiful photographs and illustrations reconstruct the fragments to show how they would have originally been used.
640 pages, Hardback. £45.00
22cm x 28cm
See also article 'Hoard of golden treasure stumbled upon by metal detectorist ‘most important Anglo-Saxon find in history’ by David Keys in the independent 31 October 2019 [sound down, unless you enjoy intrusive rousing film-soundtrack type music].
UPDATE videos from the Society of Antiquaries launch/colloquium on the Staffordshire Hoard here:
No comments:
Post a Comment