Top Treasure!

“It pays to be observant… who knows what might turn up on your next walk?”

Isle of Wight Axehead

A nine year-old girl, Imogen Rickman, enjoying a school trip to a farm on the Isle of Wight spotted a strange stone with markings on it as she walked across a muddy field. Realising it must be important she reported it to her local Finds Liaison Officer. The odd-rock turned out to be a

Neolithic flint axe head, probably knapped locally sometime between 3500 and 2100 BC. Although incomplete, it was of superb quality and vital for people piecing together the prehistory of the area. It now enjoys pride of place on display at the Isle of Wight Garlic Farm.

The Vale of York Hoard

Many objects eventually classified as treasure are found by people with metal detectors. The Vale of York

Hoard, of 617 coins and 65 items of jewellery and other items from across the Viking world, was found by a father and son team and acquired jointly by the British Museum and the Yorkshire Museum. The finders were commended for metal-detector ‘best practice’. Experts at the PAS have worked with members of the detectorist community to create a set of tips, guidelines and legal need-to-knows for people considering the hobby, which can be found on the ‘Get involved’ section of the website.

Brackley Bust

The PAS occasionally brings to light older finds. On hearing about the scheme, an Oxfordshire farmer brought in a strange bronze head his plough had hit in 1976. He hadn’t attached much importance to it at the time and had kept it on his fireplace as a novelty. He was amazed to find it was Roman, probably depicting the emperor Marcus Aurelius, and of national importance. Because the bust is not gold or silver, it is not officially ‘treasure’, so the farmer was not under legal obligation to part with it but it was eventually sold to the Ashmolean Museum.