Hunting for treasure would make a great Ealing comedy

How fabulous that a treasure trove has been unearthed between a discount supermarket and a pub in Essex. The 6th-century Christian burial site at Southend-on-sea, below, has yielded, inter alia, gold coins and a golden belt buckle, the gilded silver neck of a wooden drinking vessel, decorative glass beakers and a flagon believed to have come from Syria.

A lyre, or ancient harp, and a 1,400-year-old box thought to be the only surviving example of painted Anglo-saxon woodwork in Britain were also uncovered, after roadworks revealed the hidden remains.

Such incongruity is becoming par for the course when it comes to our ancient history, even if describing the find in the same breath as Tutankhamun’s tomb is a bit of a stretch. What a wonderful Ealing comedy it would make, however.

First, we had the king in the car park, when Richard III’S remains were discovered under concrete in Leicester. Now we have an Anglo-saxon prince at Aldi. What next? A viscount in the biscuit aisle of Budgens?

It’s quite nice to learn that there’s more to discover, just as a cheer always goes up when a random metal detectorist digs up a rare brooch dating back to 1200, as one revealed this week.

The finder usually splits the value with the landowner, but it’s not so much the monetary value that captures the public imagination. Anyone can go to see gold coins in a museum. The feeling of sifting through soil and weighing them in your own hand must surely be priceless.