Treasure finds in England reach record high

Treasure finds in England have reached a record high, with a lamp shaped like a human foot and an earwax scoop among the extraordinary items unearthed.

Provisional government figures recorded by the British Museum’s Portable Antiquities Program show 1,446 discoveries in England in 2024; This figure was 1,266 the previous year.

A treasure find can include more than one item, and eastern England proved the jewel in the country’s crown with 388 finds last year.

Many have been unearthed by metal detectorists like Emma Youell, who describes herself as a “huge history buff” who estimates she’s found thousands of artifacts.

Emma says the most rewarding part of finding treasure is knowing that recording it adds to our understanding of history.

“I found a hammered coin, a silver coin with a portrait of Henry VIII in it, so we go back to the Tudors.

“I had gold coins from Iron Age tribes; they are about 2,000 years old.”

The 2024 finds include, for the first time, two objects that fit the definition of a new treasure.

Previously, the treasure had to be at least 300 years old and some of it had to be made of precious metals such as gold or silver, or part of a hoard.

From July 2023 this has been extended to include objects that are at least 200 years old and are deemed to be of outstanding historical, archaeological or cultural significance, regardless of what metal they are made of.

Provisional figures for 2024 show a further 85 treasure finds in Wales and nine in Northern Ireland. additional restrictions on the search for archaeological objects.

Scotland has a separate statute for its treasure chest and so its figures are not included.

The first by the new definition, a 9th-century penny, was in Norfolk, England’s treasure capital, which had 138 finds in 2024; this was the largest of all the counties.

Norfolk’s finds liaison officer, Dr. Helen Geake said the area may be the highest in terms of finds as it is rich in arable land, historically well-populated and suitable for collaboration between detector experts and archaeologists.

“This is the first official coin minted by Aethelstan,” he said.

“Affordable government money”.

It was minted by a Viking warlord known as Aethelstan II after he became a Christian king.

One of the images of the Vikings shows them as “raiders, marauders, and raiders of monasteries who then turn into more peaceful Scandinavian settlers.”

“This coin sums up the turning point between the fearsome Vikings who attacked us and the settler Vikings who actually attacked us. in a strange way to us.”

The second was a Roman copper alloy lamp in the shape of a sandaled foot, discovered by a working party in Kent while investigating what was believed to be a small Roman fort.

according to Portable Antiquities ProgramIt is the first known example of its kind found in England.

A metal detector first spotted the lamp’s chain before revealing everything.

“This is very surprising,” Dr Geake said.

“It seems that the Roman foot-shaped artifacts have some meanings related to the cult of Isis. It is also stated that they are novelty items.”

One of Dr Geake’s favorite items is the Roman auricle.

“Apparently they were used to remove earwax, as if your fingernail was useless,” he said.

“You’ve probably been looking at it closer than anyone else since it lost its owner, and that puts you in a strange, otherworldly contact with that owner.

“It’s such a lovely object, and when I save objects like this I think, ‘God, I’m really doing the best job in the world’ – seeing these personal items, looking at them for a while, and giving them new life.”

Emma says she has been out researching almost every weekend since she started the hobby 12 years ago.

The 34-year-old man from Kent was the youngest and one of the only women in the metal detecting group.

She now sees more women and young people getting involved and helps run a Facebook group for female detectors.

“I have a camper van so I can go out and travel around the country,” he says.

“My husband knows I’m a big history buff. He’s happy for me to go out on Sunday and do my own thing. It’s just what I love to do.”

He also enjoys a “weekend” from Friday through Sunday – camping on a farm with other detectorists and with the farmer’s permission.

“We’ll all have a little barbecue or something; it’s a very social thing,” he said.

“Lots of people make great friendships in the UK.”

Dr Geake believes treasure finds are increasing in the UK because there are now more detectors, more information about why incidents should be reported and the impact of excavations at archaeological sites.

“You can’t blame a farmer for scanning an archaeological site he didn’t know was there,” he said.

“There are such pressures, especially on small farms.

“There needs to be some sort of discussion with landowners, archaeologists and the public. How much of our historic environment do we want to save and what resources are we willing to devote to it?”

Julian Evan-Hart, from Essex, editor of Treasure Hunting magazine, arranged for his finds to be displayed in museums. But one of his favorite things is reconnecting people with sentimental objects.

He found wedding rings, baby jewelry and even a hat badge from the site where an elderly woman’s father crashed the plane decades ago.

“It was a small, crumpled piece of copper; it had no real value other than the value of his daughter…

“We have this idea of ​​treasure as gold and silver, but we should not be fooled by this, because to a person anywhere in the world the smallest, most insignificant object can mean more than that.

“The best part of this hobby is, yes, what we find, but the ability to share it with other people.”

In 2023, 1,358 treasure finds were initially recorded, but this number was changed to 1,343 as some finds were not solved at the time of publication.

Since an individual “treasure find” could be made from more than one artifact, these numbers actually represented 32,768 artifacts.

Provisional figures for treasure finds in 2024 will be confirmed in 2026, along with the number of artifacts they contain.

Additional reporting by Jonathan Fagg