Written by the TreasureGuide for the exclusive use of the Treasure Beaches Report.
A beautiful ancient Saxon pendant buried for more than 1,200 years in a Leeds field is giving experts a fascinating glimpse into life in early medieval Yorkshire.
Believed to date from the eighth century, the gilded pectoral cross may have once been a badge of office for an important church leader or official and was unearthed last year by a metal detectorist.
With one arm broken, and the central stone now missing, the cross is nevertheless a stunning example of metalwork, made from solid silver covered with a thin layer of gold leaf...
“There are certainly more objects out there waiting to be discovered, and responsible metal detectorists and The Portable Antiquities Scheme are playing a really important role in increasing our understanding of local history. Without them, this beautiful piece of Saxon metalwork, and many others like it, would never have been found and made available for future generations.”...
City’s tiny Saxon treasure has a big story to tell
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Back to Florida.
Some readers said they liked seeing my old find photos and hoped to see more of them. I showed a few in the recent past and said I'd be showing more.
As I previously said, I typically would accumulate finds over a period of two to four weeks, but for various reasons it was sometimes a shorter period before I'd photograph the group and take them to a safe deposit box.
Below is one of my old find photos that I recently rediscovered.
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| Group of Beach Metal Detector Finds. |
This group includes a number of nice rings, but there is one that really sticks out in my memory. That is the big ring in the top row of the second column from the left.
I remember it very well and remember the specific spot where it was found. It was found in a small area along with four other pieces of gold. By the way, that spot is no longer accessible because of a large beach renourishment project that extended the beach a hundred yards or more to the east.
I don't remember the exact weight of the big ring but do remember that it is well over one ounce and is a very large size. It fits loosely on my thumb. It has a small diamond in the center of the conquistador-like figure.
Although that ring was found along with four other pieces of gold that would also be in this group, I don't remember which those are. I do remember that one of the other four pieces was very small and contrasted sharply with the large ring.
There are some other nice rings in that group that feature both diamonds and other gemstones. Three of them have both diamonds and red gemstones.
Two less valuable and unusual rings are silver with a little gold. You can the silver ring with the little deerlike figure in gold shown bottom center.
I don't know how many hunts were included in this photo, but it shows a smaller number of finds than usual. I do remember a heavy man's gold plated bracelet that was found on the same day as the big ring that is not shown in the photo, probably because it was only plated.
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On the subject of unusually large rings, I once post in which I discussed thumb rings and gimmel rings.
There are also glove rings, which are rings that were worn over a glove. A gimmel ring is a ring composed of two or more interlinking bands. I've shown several of those kinds of rings before too.
Here is the link to the post mentioning thumb and gimmel rings.
In that old post I also referred to a good resource that you might want to look up. It is An Illustrated Dictionary of Historic Costume, From the First Century B C. to C. 1760 by James Robinson Planche.
I found a free preview of that book online. Here is the link to the preview.
An Illustrated Dictionary of Historic Costume - Google Books
On page 419 you'll this information on thumb rings.---
Gold Rush: White Water is running again. It is one of my favorite treasure TV shows.
I saw a play on TV that I liked, which, despite my nephew being one of the top playwrights in New York, is the only play I ever saw that I found worth watching. The play is Next to Normal. My psychology background is probably the reason I liked the play, which provides a very deep and honest view of family psychodynamics. The play could easily be the basis for several discussion periods for a clinical psychology course, but anyone interested in psychodynamics or anyone experiencing family problems might find the play interesting and helpful. The music was pretty good too. It was a rock musical, that reminded me a bit of Jesus Christ Superstar.
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Nothing much has changed in the forecast.
Good hunting,
Treasureguide@comcast.net