Latest news with #NinthRegionMetalDetectingGroup
Yahoo
12-05-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Metal Detectorists Discovered a Golden Raven Head with a Godly Connection
"Hearst Magazines and Yahoo may earn commission or revenue on some items through these links." 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. You Might Also Like The Do's and Don'ts of Using Painter's Tape The Best Portable BBQ Grills for Cooking Anywhere Can a Smart Watch Prolong Your Life?
Yahoo
08-05-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
Metal detectorists unearth dazzling Anglo-Saxon gold-and-garnet raven head and ring: 'It's unbelievable — I'm a bit emotional'
Yahoo is using AI to generate takeaways from this article. This means the info may not always match what's in the article. Reporting mistakes helps us improve the experience. Yahoo is using AI to generate takeaways from this article. This means the info may not always match what's in the article. Reporting mistakes helps us improve the experience. Yahoo is using AI to generate takeaways from this article. This means the info may not always match what's in the article. Reporting mistakes helps us improve the experience. Generate Key Takeaways When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. Metal detectorists found these two gold-and-garnet objects in a field in England. | Credit: Chris Phillips While searching a field in southwest England, metal detectorists stumbled on the "find of a lifetime": two gold-and-garnet objects dating to around 1,400 years ago. Paul Gould, a new detectorist with the Ninth Region Metal Detecting Group, hit on a flat metal object toward the end of a long day of detecting on Jan. 8. He thought the gold band, inlaid with triangular garnets and studded with tiny beads of gold , was an Anglo-Saxon ring. But as fellow detectorist Chris Phillips searched nearby, he hit on something even more extraordinary: a decorated raven's head. "It's unbelievable — I'm a bit emotional," Phillips said in a video of the discovery posted to his YouTube channel. The raven's head, also believed to be Anglo-Saxon and date to the seventh century, included a stunning garnet eye and tiny gold spheres outlining the garnet-flecked "feathers." Phillips estimated it weighed about 2 ounces (57 grams). Related: 'Exceptional' hoard of 800 Iron Age artifacts found mysteriously burned and buried in UK field Ravens were often seen as harbingers of death and darkness in early European historical and mythological writings, and Germanic and Viking Age people associated two ravens with Odin , the Norse god of war and death. But it is unclear what the gold-and-garnet raven's head was meant to represent. After discovering the two gold objects, the group contacted the landowner and the local finds liaison officer, who is part of the U.K.'s Portable Antiquities Scheme . The program encourages members of the public to report the discovery of archaeological objects to enhance the understanding of England's history. Paul Gould and Chris Phillips hold the Anglo-Saxon gold-and-garnet objects they discovered while metal detecting. | Credit: Chris Phillips "The finds will go through the treasure process now, which will take a while," Phillips told Live Science in an email. According to the U.K.'s Treasure Act , artifacts crafted from precious metals that are at least 300 years old can qualify as treasure. As a part of the "treasure process," the objects are being cleaned by experts at the British Museum, where Phillips and Gould went to visit their finds earlier this year, documenting the journey in another video . Initial cleaning revealed the right side of the raven's head, which is missing a garnet eye, as well as incised nostrils on its beak. Phillips noted that, with the dirt removed from the inside of the raven's head, small pins could be seen. Those may have attached the decorative head to a drinking horn, he thinks, similar to an example found in the Anglo-Saxon ship burial at Sutton Hoo . RELATED STORIES —Hoard of silver Roman coins found in UK — and some date to reign of Marcus Aurelius —'I was shaking when I first unearthed it': 11th-century silver coin hoard unearthed in England —1,700-year-old Roman hoard includes gold coins depicting illegitimate emperor The ring that Gould discovered was also cleaned by experts, but it is still unclear if it was a piece of jewelry or a decoration that became detached from its original context. Given the discovery of two remarkable pieces of gold, the spot where they were found is now being investigated as a potential archaeological site, Phillips said. "We hope to be involved in any further investigation of the site, and we will continue to detect with all the correct procedures in place," he said.
