Found in a cow field, gold necklaces and a bracelet last worn 2,500 years ago
WITH the cold, wintry light fading on a bleak farmer’s field, the two treasure hunters were about to call it a day.
One, Mark Hambleton, had already packed away his metal detector as his friend Joe Kania had one last sweep over the desolate grass.
And in that moment history was made. For when Mr Kania’s detector went beep it was the clue to uncovering a hoard of Iron Age jewellery of exquisite beauty.
The four torcs – three 18 carat gold necklaces and a bracelet – are thought to have been the height of Iron Age fashion. They are at least 2,500 years old.
An archaeologist said the items had possibly been worn by three ‘wealthy and powerful’ women who may have come to England from mainland Europe.
The find, in Leek, Staffordshire, is not far from the biggest gold hoard ever found in the UK – worth £3.3million.
The two friends had given up treasure hunting 20 years ago to take up fishing after growing bored with the hobby.
But Mr Hambleton’s father Roy had urged them to go back to detectoring. He died recently, but not before seeing the treasure they discovered.
At an inquest yesterday Coroner Ian Smith said it would be ‘highly desirable’ for the find to remain in the county.
Mr Hambleton, 59, and Mr Kania, 60, made the stunning find in a cow field on December 11, 2016. After Mr Kania uncovered one of the bands, they then found three others six inches below ground and three feet apart.
One of the torcs had been broken in two, probably by ploughing.
The torcs may have been buried for safekeeping, or as a religious offering. The inscription on the bracelet is thought to be the oldest example of Celtic art. Mr Kania said his first thought was ‘ bloody hell, I’ve seen this in a treasure-hunting magazine’.
Mr Hambleton added: ‘Joe shouted to me, “I think I’ve found something quite significant”.
‘He pulled this big torc out of his pocket, and dangled it in front of me. When I’d got some air back into my lungs, my head had cleared and my legs had stopped wobbling, I said, “Do you realise what you’ve found there?” ’
Mr Hambleton admitted that he then had a sleepless night with the haul next to his bed. He handed the gold over to Birmingham Museums the next day, with archaeologists from Staffordshire County Council and Stoke- onTrent City Council sent to investigate the field.
The men are now planning to split the find 50/50 with the landowner, Stuart Heath.
Dr Julia Farley, curator of British and European Iron Age collections for the British Museum, said: ‘This unique find is of international importance.
‘It dates to around 400-250 BC, and is probably the earliest Iron Age gold work ever discovered in Britain.
‘The torcs were probably worn by wealthy and powerful women, perhaps people from the continent who had married into the local community.
‘ Piecing together how these objects came to be carefully buried in a Staffordshire field will give us an invaluable insight into life in Iron Age Britain.’
Asked if there could be more finds awaiting discovery, she said: ‘It’s hard to know – we’ll never know unless people find things.’ The inquest heard the torcs’ gold content was at least 80 per cent with each piece weighing between 1oz and 8oz.
The coroner, Mr Smith, raised laughter in the public gallery by joking: ‘Even as scrap, that’s still worth a bob or two?’
A group of antiquities experts will now value the haul.
In 2009 the 3,900-piece Staffordshire Hoard was found 45 miles south of Leek at Hammerwich, near Lichfield.