This is a spectacular gold scabbard boss with inlaid garnets, circa 700 AD, part of a huge hoard of Anglo-Saxon gold and silver discovered recently in Staffordshire:
The first scraps of gold were found in July in a farm field by Terry Herbert, an amateur metal detector who lives alone in a council flat on disability benefit, who had never before found anything more valuable than a nice rare piece of Roman horse harness. The last pieces were removed from the earth by a small army of archaeologists a fortnight ago.
….Leslie Webster, former keeper of the department of prehistory at the British Museum, who led the team of experts and has spent months poring over metalwork, described the hoard as “absolutely the equivalent of finding a new Lindisfarne Gospels or Book of Kells”.
….[Kevin] Leahy said he was not surprised at the find being in Staffordshire, the heartland of the “militarily aggressive and expansionist” 7th century kings of Mercia including Penda, Wulfhere and Æthelred. “This material could have been collected by any of these during their wars with Northumbria and East Anglia, or by someone whose name is lost to history. Here we are seeing history confirmed before our eyes.”
More at the link. Enjoy.
