Dig up your f lowerbeds ...you might strike gold
LOCKDOWN has forced many of us to adapt our hobbies so they can be enjoyed at home.
Unfortunately, for treasure hunters this means digging up their own gardens.
But the rewards appear to have made it all worthwhile. According to the experts, a treasure trove of artefacts has now been unearthed by metal detectors that may never have been found otherwise.
Objects discovered over the past few months include a postmedieval, snake-form belt hook in a Herefordshire garden and a medieval silver coin in Stoke.
A rock with script, thought to date from the 4th century, was found in a back yard in Coventry, according to officials from the Government’s Portable Antiquities Scheme (PAS).
Eight fragments of Roman grey ware pottery were unearthed in Wymeswold, Leicestershire. And a quern used to grind grain in the
Neolithic or Bronze Age period was dug up near Bradford, while an arrowhead from a similar period was found in Chithurst, West Sussex.
Peter Reavill, from PAS, said fossils found in flowerbeds had been sent to his museum in Shropshire.
‘With so many people spending so much more time in their gardens, there have been some really interesting finds,’ he said.
‘I’ve seen some tobacco pipes, some pieces of pottery and even prehistoric flint tools found in people’s gardens.’
Michael Lewis, head of portable antiquities and treasure at the British Museum, urged amateur archaeologists to get in touch so experts could analyse their finds.
He said: ‘Often people don’t realise the archaeological significance of what they find.’