2 days ago
Turriff field yields a 'treasure trove' for detectorist Cameron
He'd been pottering about with an old metal detector on his parents' farm near Turriff for years with indifferent results.
But when Cameron Anderson's wife Emily gave him a fancy new digital detector last Christmas, it was a game-changer.
In the past few months the fields have given up ancient coins, buttons, musket balls, even a Viking silver ingot.
Exciting finds for Cameron, co-owner of Subsea Tooling Services UK Ltd.
His primary intention is to use the metal detector to find out more about the history of the farm, in the family since the 1930s.
One week he found 31 coins, including a hammered silver coin from 1563, a 1697 William III shilling, and a fascinating Irish gun metal coin made from melted canon in the 17th century.
He's found many love tokens, which were coins bent in a certain way, including one dated 1708, from the reign of Queen Anne.
There were also musketballs, evidence of military action, perhaps during the time of the Covenanters in the 17th century.
Cameron said: 'There's a big dent in one as if it had definitely hit someone or something.'
Handily, he even found a friend's missing Stanley knife.
But then came what some archaeologists call the Holy Grail of finds— Cameron discovered nothing less than a Bronze Age axe head, some half a metre below what he describes as 'just an ordinary field'.
The bronze axe head wasn't complete; in fact it looked as if it had been intentionally cut up as the back end was missing.
None the less, the Turriff detectorist knew at once what it was.
He had to sit down for a while to calm his pounding heart and process what had just happened before phoning Emily, who had left minutes beforehand to take the dog home, with the astonishing news.
The next night, Cameron detected on, and at the other end of the 10 acre field, turned up what he thought was another small axe head.
When he compared it to the first one he realised it matched the cut on the original axe head exactly, all but for another small missing piece.
The challenge was on.
Cameron simply had to find the rest of the axe head.
It took a further two days, five miles of walking and some moments of frustration, but he did it- the missing section that he likened to 'Gandalf's hat' in shape was lying some 10m from the second find.
Cameron immediately got in touch with Bruce Mann, Aberdeenshire Council's Historic Environment Officer.
Bruce confirmed Turriff detectorist's find.
He said: 'It's an early Bronze Age flat axehead, likely to be around 3,800 to 4,200 years old.
'It's undecorated, as is typical, and would have been originally hafted into an L-shaped piece of wood.
'These axes appear at the start of the introduction of metalwork into this part of the world and would have been prestigious items.'
Processing what happened has been mind-boggling for Cameron.
He said: 'Crazy to think that when this axe head was cast, the Egyptians were building their pyramids, Stonehenge was under construction and it had been lost to time for 1,300 years before King Tutankhamen was even born.'
Cameron's axe head was part of a profound change in society at the time, the change between the old world of stone to the new one of metal.
Bruce said: 'We are still learning about what those impacts were, and trying to answer basic questions such as just how much metalwork was available initially.
'Whether cast locally or traded from elsewhere, Cameron's axehead is a fascinating glimpse into life at the time.'
During his detecting, Cameron has also turned up many fragments of bronze splatter from smelting, so was the site a possible Bronze Age tool factory?
Bruce thinks not.
He said: 'That is very unlikely as we don't have any other evidence for settlement near to the findspot.
'Direct evidence for metal-working on a site is very rare in the early Bronze Age.'
Cameron thinks the axehead was deliberately broken, and Bruce agrees with him.
He said: 'The axe more likely represents a deliberate offering to the gods or the ancestors and was deliberately broken as part of that 'sacrifice'.'
Meanwhile, as the fields grow over for summer, Cameron has hung up his detector for the next few months.
When the crops are in, he'll be back out in his trusty 1961 Land Rover, Pike.
'Pike goes everywhere with me on my metal detector adventures. He's like an old friend, always by my side.'
A find as important as the axe head is classed as treasure trove, and must by law go to the National Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh for recording.
For the moment it's on temporary display in the window of Turriff museum, and once it's been processed by the Treasure Trove unit, Cameron hopes it will return permanently to the north-east, its home for four millennia.
Bruce praised Cameron for his responsible attitude.
'Responsible metal detectorists have an important part to play in researching our past.
'I certainly welcome Mr Anderson's contribution to that research by reporting the axe. If there are others reading this who have found something I simply ask that they do the same.
'Every find helps tell Scotland's story.'
The Turriff detectorist added: 'I just want to know more about the history of my parents' farm, and I never thought it would go back that far.
'But we can't rely on anything metal surviving for ever in the fields anymore, as pesticides can corrode and destroy metal.'
