Adam Staples knew he had found something when his metal detector beeped. And then another. And another.
Soon, “it was just ‘beep beep, beep beep, beep beep,'” Staples said.
In a farmer’s field in southwest England, Staples and six friends had discovered a treasure trove of more than 2,500 silver coins that had been lying in the ground for nearly 1,000 years. Valued at $5.6 million, or £4.3 million, and now destined for a museum, they will help shed light on the turbulent aftermath of the Norman Conquest of England.
“The first was a William the Conqueror coin – worth 1,000 pounds, or 1,500 pounds,” Staples said Tuesday at the British Museum, where the treasure will go on display in November. “It’s a very good find. It’s a sort of discovery of the year. And then we had another one, (we thought) there might be five, there might be 10.
“And it just got bigger and bigger,” he said – the biggest discovery of his 30 years searching the fields and furrows of Britain as an amateur detectorist. In recent years, other large reserves of ancient coins And artifacts were discovered in the country.
AP Photo/Alastair Grant
This hoard, discovered in 2019 and recently acquired by the South West Heritage Trust, totaled 2,584 silver coins minted between 1066 and 1068, some depicting the conquering King William I and others his defeated Anglo-Saxon predecessor Harold II.
Michael Lewis, head of the Portable Antiquities Scheme – a government-funded project which records archaeological discoveries made by the public – said it was “one of the most spectacular discoveries” in recent years, including because “his story is not yet fully revealed.” .”
Lewis said the trove of coins would help deepen understanding of the most famous date in English history: 1066, the year William, Duke of Normandy, defeated King Harold at the Battle of Hastings, replacing Saxon monarchs of England by Norman French rulers.
“Most of us learn about the Norman Conquest of England in school, probably because that was the last time England was successfully conquered,” Lewis said. “But it is a story based on certain myths,” such as the idea that the battle was “the English against the French” or the “good” Saxons against the “bad” Normans.
AP Photo/Alastair Grant
In fact, the warring families were linked together, and Lewis said the treasure “helps us tell a different, more nuanced story.”
Although the invasion marked a historical schism, the coins in the hoard are remarkably similar whether they were struck before or after the conquest. One side shows the head of a monarch in profile, the other an emblem: an elaborate cross for William, the somewhat ironic word “pax” – peace – for Harold.
Amal Khreisheh, curator of archeology at the South West Heritage Trust, said the pieces were likely buried for safety as local rebellions broke out against Norman rule.
“We know that the people of Exeter rebelled against William in 1068 and that Harold’s sons, who had been in exile in Ireland, returned and began launching attacks along the River Avon into Somerset ” she said. “So that’s probably the context in which they were hidden.”
The Chew Valley treasure, named after the rural area where it was discovered, was purchased for the nation using money from the charitable arm of the British National Lottery. After being exhibited at the British Museum and other museums around the UK, it will have a permanent home at the Museum of Somerset in Taunton, 130 miles southwest of London.
It took several years for the treasure to work its way through the British system for managing amateur archaeological finds. The Treasures Act decrees that anyone who discovers gold, silver or other historically valuable items must notify the local coroner. If a coroner declares it treasure, the treasure will belong to the government and museums can bid for funds to acquire it.
A committee of experts sets a value for each find, with the money shared between the owner of the land and the inventors. In this case, Staples and six fellow detectives shared half of the £4.3 million purse, with the other half going to the landowner. Staples told CBS News partner BBC News that he “took a few hundred thousand pounds out of it” and used the money to buy a house. He plans to pursue his passion for metal detecting.
“I’m going to live mortgage-free and hopefully have a little more time to find something else,” Staples told BBC News.
