Time Team

In July 2009, amateur metal detectorist Terry Herbert found an Anglo-Saxon treasure hoard worth over £3 million in a Staffordshire field. The hoard was saved for the nation by Stoke on Trent and Birmingham Museums, who, with the aid of a lottery grant and public donations, purchased it jointly. Two years ago Channel 4 told the story of the discovery of these golden, richly jewelled objects. Now, with the initial phase of the post-excavation process nearing completion, archaeologists are beginning to unlock the secrets of the hoard. After further digging and carefully unpicking the jumble of finds, experts from the museums have realised there were over 3500 objects buried in this small area with the gold alone weighing 11lbs. Thanks to their painstaking restoration work and application of the latest scientific techniques, they can understand the function of these objects, begin to explain how and why they came to be here, and pinpoint the origins of the hoard's raw materials.