Early interpretation
It is not yet possible to tell the full story of the Staffordshire Hoard. But, it is already becoming clear that it is dramatic and perhaps bloody.
Dr Kevin Leahy, National Finds Adviser from the Portable Antiquities Scheme, led on the painstaking task to first catalogue the Staffordshire Hoard. This role has now been passed to the conservators and researchers led by Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery and the Potteries Museum & Art Gallery in Stoke-on-Trent.
During his work cataloguing the Staffordshire Hoard, Kevin carried out some initial analysis of the hoard:
… for one warrior stripped the other, looted Ongentheow’s iron mail-coat, his hard sword-hilt, his helmet too, and carried graith to King Hygelac; he accepted the prize, promised fairly that reward would come, and kept his word … they let the ground keep that ancestral treasure, gold under gravel, gone to earth, as useless to men now as it ever was.
The two most striking features of the Staffordshire Hoard are that it is unbalanced, and it is of exceptionally high quality.
It is unbalanced because of what is missing. There is absolutely nothing feminine. There are no dress fittings, brooches or pendants. These are the gold objects most commonly found from the Anglo-Saxon era. The vast majority of items in the hoard are martial – war gear, especially sword fittings.
The quantity of gold is amazing but, more importantly, the craftsmanship is consummate. This was the very best that the Anglo-Saxon metalworkers could do, and they were very good. Tiny garnets were cut to shape and set in a mass of cells to give a rich, glowing effect, that is stunning. Its origins are clearly the very highest levels of Anglo-Saxon aristocracy or royalty. It belonged to the elite.
Most of the gold and silver items appear to have been deliberately torn from the objects to which they were originally attached. There are nearly 100 gold and garnet pommel caps, and there also appear to be fittings from helmets.
This is not simply loot – swords were being singled out for special treatment. If it was just gold they were after, there would have been the rich fittings from sword belts. Perhaps gold fittings were stripped from the swords to depersonalise them – to remove the identity of the previous owner. The blades then being remounted and reused.
It looks like a collection of trophies, but it is impossible to say if the hoard was the spoils from a single battle, or a long and highly successful military career. We also cannot say who the original, or the final, owners were, who took it from them, why they buried it or when. This will be debated for decades.
We don’t know how it came to be buried in the field in Hammerwich. It may have been a tribute to the pagan gods or concealed in the face of a perceived, but all too real, threat, which led to it not being recovered. When we have done more work on the hoard we will be able to say more about it.
Despite their war-like nature, the decoration on these objects is delightful. Some are decorated in what is known as ‘Anglo-Saxon Style II’ which consist of strange animals, interlaced around each other, their long jaws intertwined – there is a joy to it. Many objects are inlaid with garnets and, even covered in earth, the colour is still breath-taking.
There is so much material in the Staffordshire Hoard that we may have to rethink seventh century metalwork. Earlier finds will be looked at in the context of what we find amongst this mass of material.
In the past, the seventh century has always been looked at from the point of view of East Anglia and Kent. It’s going to be hard to forget the Midlands after this! There are exciting times ahead.
The discovery of this hoard in Staffordshire should cause no surprise. It is in the heartland of the Anglo-Saxon Kingdom of Mercia which was militarily aggressive and expansionist during the seventh century, under kings Penda, Wulfhere and Aethelred.
This material could have been collected by any of these during their wars with Northumbria and East Anglia, or by someone whose name is lost to history.
Here we are seeing history confirmed before our eyes!
Dr Leahy is an expert in early medieval metalwork and Anglo-Saxon craftsmanship.
To find out about the secrets that are being revealed through the work to conserve and research the Staffordshire Hoard, visit our Conservation & Research section.