£350,000 gold collar hailed as best iron age find in 50 years

[Philosophia]

£350,000 gold collar hailed as best iron age find in 50 years

An iron age gold collar worth more than £350,000 that was found by an amateur metal detectorist in a muddy field in Nottinghamshire was described yesterday as the best find of its kind in half a century.

"I was only in the field because a customer kept me late," Maurice Richardson, a tree surgeon from Newark, said yesterday. "Normally I'd never want to go into this field because a plane crashed there in the last war, and the whole place is littered with bits of metal."

The first beep from his detector was indeed a chunk of wartime scrap metal, but as he bent down to discard it, his machine gave a louder signal. Expecting to find a bigger chunk of fuselage, he instead discovered the 2,200-year-old collar.

From here (http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/2008/nov/20/heritage-art).

Another remarkable find. I like that collar.

[Brightshores]

That's stunning. (I like the collar too!)

[David19]

It is a very cool discovery, and the collar is great too.

[Silverfire Darkmoon]

Eh, just another fugly torc :P

I love the idea of a tree surgeon wandering around with a metal detector. I was really hoping he used it in his tree surgeoning :P

[yarrow_elfglow]

what a awsome find! what a beautiful collar!

[_Banbha_]

It's a fabulous torc, not a collar, as they keep calling it the article, lol.


Eh, just another fugly torc :P

I love the idea of a tree surgeon wandering around with a metal detector. I was really hoping he used it in his tree surgeoning :P

I was thinking the same thing. Wondering if he scans trees and roots with it as an eccentricity or looking for treasures...or who knows.

[watersprite]

Yes, VERY interesting and very beautiful! I wonder what they are going to dig up next?
IF there are remnants of German planes there, could these be stolen objects?

[Seren_]

Yes, VERY interesting and very beautiful! I wonder what they are going to dig up next?
IF there are remnants of German planes there, could these be stolen objects?

I would doubt it. It's more than likely this was a bomber plane that was shot down during an air raid, so I don't see why they'd have valuable objects on board.

What's probably happened is that the impact of the plane crash has churned up the soil and brought up the torc from a lower soil layer. After this amount of time, if it was associated with a burial then any surviving bones will probably have perished because of the disturbance (if the soil acidity hadn't dissolved them already) so it's difficult to tell why it's there. It could be part of a hoarde.