Metal Detectorists Discovered a Golden Raven Head with a Godly Connection
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Ruled by the Britons, the Romans, the Anglo-Saxons, the Normans, and eventually raided relentlessly by Vikings, the precariously placed British Islands have some of the most fascinating history in the world. And this kind of melting pot of cultures, tribes, and empires comes with a peculiar beneficial side effect—glorious treasure hoards.
Both the hoard at Sutton Hoo (found in 1939) and the Staffordshire Hoard (found in 2009) contained thousands of gold and silver metalworks from one Britain's most enigmatic peoples—the Anglo-Saxons, who ruled Britain from around 450 A.D. until the Normans came knocking in 1066—and offered unprecedented glimpses into their fascinating culture. Now, a new discovery by metal detectorists in southwest England adds to that incredible, blinged-out history.
While this find isn't nearly as massive as the aforementioned treasure hoards of legend, what detectorists Paul Gould and Chris Phillips discovered rivals the splendor of the gilded objects in museums around the UK. Toward the end of a long day of metal detecting on January 8, 2025, Gould and Phillips—as part of the local Ninth Region Metal Detecting Group—came across a gold band with inlaid garnets, which was later identified as an Anglo-Saxon ring. That alone would be the discovery of a lifetime, but the day wasn't over.
While continuing his search nearby, Phillips came across a stunning golden raven head with an inlaid eye of garnet. The raven figures prominently in Norse mythology as a symbol of the god Odin (also Woden), the god of war and death who famously gives up an eye for wisdom. Odin's ravens, named Huginn and Muninn, serve the god by bringing him information from Midgard (a.k.a. Earth).
In a video posted to YouTube, Phillips details the find, stating that the head is made of solid gold and weighs roughly two ounces. 'It's unbelievable,' Phillips says, choking back tears. 'Sorry… I'm just a bit emotional.'
After the discovery, the group stopped detecting in the area, as the find proved that the site could be of national interest. They also contacted the landowner and the local finds liaison officer to report the discovery. In a follow-up video, Phillips visits the British Museum to examine the object—dated to around the seventh century A.D.—after a preliminary clean, and discovered that only one of the garnet eyes remained intact. However, seeing as ravens are closely associated with Odin, that could be by design.
'Unfortunately the eye has either been damaged or was supposed to be like that,' Phillips said in the video. 'People say Woden gave up an eye for knowledge and all of that, I don't know if that has anything to do with it.'
Phillips and Gould are part of a growing detectorist movement in the U.K.—spurred on by both increased interest during the pandemic and vast improvements in metal detector technology—and these detectors have made some truly stunning discoveries. In December of 2021, for example, a detectorist outside Melsonby, North Yorkshire discovered one of the largest Iron Age hoards in history, and earlier this year, a detectorist found a bunch of Roman silver coins in Barton Bendish, Norfolk.
While the act of metal detecting brings about its own benefits—getting out into nature and getting some exercise being positive side effects—walking earth that possesses such vast amount of treasures across millennia can certainly be quite the motivator.
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