Historical knowledge and treasure troves

Today's Guardian has a very moving video report about the return of the Staffordshire Hoard to Staffordshire in the United Kingdom for display at the Potteries Museum beginning this Saturday, 13 February.  The discovery, made by an amateur treasure hunter on 5 July 2009, is the largest hoard of Anglo-Saxon gold found to date, consisting of up to 5 kg of gold and 1.3 kg of silver in artifacts.  There are more than 1,500 items, most military-related, that experts have dated to the 7th and 8th centuries.

Following the July 2009 discovery and the public announcement on 24 September 2009, the artifacts were on display at the Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery until they were taken to the British Museum in London for cleaning and conservation.  Now all items have returned home to Staffordshire.  For the Guardian interactive photo views, from which the photo shown above was taken, please see here.  More information and photos can be found on the dedicated website here.

But the most important Anglo-Saxon gold find to date may not be able to stay in Staffordshire.  It is possible that it will not be able to stay in Great Britain at all.  It has been valued at GBP 3,285 million. The Birmingham and Potteries Museums, as the most interested locally-based museums, are hard-pressed to raise that amount of money and have launched a public appeal.  If that amount has not been raised by 17 April 2010, the items will most likely be offered for sale on the open market, which could mean that the collection could be broken up.  In that case, the loss of archeological knowledge that could be gleaned from these artifacts could be immeasurable.

The artifacts are scheduled to be offered for sale, even in the case of such a historically significant find because under English law, treasure belongs to the property owner and the finder.  A “Treasure Valuation Committee” was established and met in November.  Later that month, the value of the hoard was set.  The funds will go to the amateur treasure seeker and the farmer who owns the land.

The Staffordshire Hoard has been compared to Sutton Hoo, the site of separate Anglo-Saxon burial mounds dating from the 6th and early 7th centuries, one of which contains an undisturbed ship burial.  As the Sutton Hoo Society states, "Sutton Hoo’s remarkable finds signaled a radical change in attitude towards early Anglo-Saxon society, until then thought substantially inferior to life during the Roman period. Deeply buried beneath a large mound lay the ghost of a 27 meter (90 feet) long oak ship. At its centre was a burial chamber the size of a small room, built with a pitched roof and hung with textiles. He was buried with his weapons, his armor, wealth in the form of gold coins and gold and garnet fittings, silver vessels and silver-mounted drinking horns and cups, symbols of power and authority, and clothes, piled in heaps, ranging from fine linen overshirts to shaggy woolen cloaks and caps trimmed with fur."

In the case of Sutton Hoo, the property owner, who was well off, gave the artifacts to the British Museum for the benefit of all.  While it is not right that those who make such historically important discoveries should forego payment altogether, it is indeed a shame that market price could very well be the sole decision maker in this case.
 
The Art Fund, which describes itself as an independent charity that exists to save art for everyone to enjoy, is coordinating fund-raising efforts for the Staffordshire Hoard.  May those efforts be fruitful!