The artefacts in the hoard

The hoard contains in excess of 1500 objects made from various metals - 5kg of gold and 1.3kg of silver - by contrast the Sutton Hoo find contained 1.66kg of precious metals. The documents below provide a catalogue of the objects contained within and a report on their discovery, initial and subsequent interpretation. You are also able to browse through the images of the objects, which are pulled directly from our flickr account. Once the catalogue is finished and recorded on the Portable Antiquities Scheme’s database, the information will be brought into this site as a searchable index.

• Catalogue of the objects in the hoard (subject to change as new information is discovered) [1.50MB]
• Summary of the hoard and intepretation [122.91KB]

The Staffordshire Hoard

659 Photos

This hoard is perhaps the most important collection of Anglo-Saxon objects found in England. It compares and perhaps exceeds those objects found at Sutton Hoo. Originally discovered by metal detectorist Terry Herbert in July 2009 and subsequently excavated by Birmingham University Archaeology Unit and Staffordshire County Council.

Leslie Webster, former Keeper of Prehistory and Europe at the British Museum describes this discovery as:

“…this is going to alter our perceptions of Anglo-Saxon England in the seventh and early eighth century as radically, if not more so, as the 1939 Sutton Hoo discoveries did; it will make historians and literary scholars review what their sources tell us, and archaeologists and art-historians rethink the chronology of metalwork and manuscripts; and it will make us all think again about rising (and failing) kingdoms and the expression of regional identities in this period, the complicated transition from paganism to Christianity, the conduct of battle and the nature of fine metalwork production - to name only a few of the many huge issues it raises. Absolutely the metalwork equivalent of finding a new Lindisfarne Gospels or Book of Kells.”

The images contained in this set invite comment. We accept there may be some errors with labelling as this was done in a very short space of time. If you do use these images please attribute as used courtesy of the Staffordshire hoard website.

The entire hoard will be catalogued on our database in due course and made available to the public.

The press quality photos are by Dave Rowan and Daniel Buxton under the aegis of Birmingham Museums and Art Gallery. Digital x-ray images of soil blocks provided by National Conservation Centre, National Museums Liverpool.

Some of the photos maybe mis-attributed, or lacking photographic attribution. Please send us a message if there are problems.

These images are hosted on the Portable Antiquities Scheme’s profile at flickr.