Treasure Annual Report 2003 - Portable Antiquities Scheme

257 Pages·2010·4.42 MB·English

Department for Culture, Media and Sport
Cultural Property Unit
Treasure Annual Report 2003
Treasure Annual Report 2003

Front cover: Coin of Domitianus from the Chalgrove hoard (no.373)
Treasure Annual Report 2003
Department for Culture, Media and Sport

Treasure Annual Report 2003

1 January–31 December 2003
Treasure Annual Report 2003
Treasure Annual Report 2003 1
Contents
Foreword 3
Introduction 5
List of contributors 8
Tables 10

Catalogue
England
1. Artefacts
A. Bronze Age (vii) Pendants 113

(i) Gold artefacts 16 (viii) Spoons 115

(ii) Base-metal deposits 20 (vii) Other objects 115

B. Iron Age 40 F. Post-medieval
C. Roman (i) Buttons 116

(i) Finger-rings 46 (ii) Bodkins 117

(ii) Jewellery 54 (iii) Buckle 118

(iii) Other objects 56 (iv) Dress fittings 118

D. Early Medieval (v) Dress-hooks 119

(i) Brooches 57 (vi) Dress-pins 123

(ii) Hooked-tags 63 (vii) Finger-rings 125

(iii) Ingots 63 (viii) Medals 131

(iv) Mounts 66 (ix) Spoons 132

(v) Pendants 68 (x) Thimble 133

(vi) Pins 75 (ix) Other objects 133

(vii) Finger-rings 78 G. 18th-20th centuries
(viii) Strap-ends 82 (i) Finger-rings 135

(ix) Sword fittings 83 (ii) Other objects 138

(x) Other objects 88 H. Undiagnostic 141

E. Medieval
(i) Badges 93 2. Coin finds
(ii) Bells 93 A. Iron Age 150

(iii) Belt fittings 94 B. Roman 153

(iv) Brooches 94 C. Early Medieval 165

(v) Finger-rings 101 D. Medieval 165

(vi) Mounts 110 E. Post-medieval 167
2 Treasure Annual Report 2003
Wales E. Post-medieval
1. Artefacts (i) Brooches 177
A. Bronze Age 170 (ii) Finger-rings 178
B. Roman 171 (iii) Miscellaneous 179
C. Early medieval 172
D. Medieval 2. Coin finds 181
(i) Brooches 172
(ii) Finger-rings 174
Valuations 182

Catalogue Index
A. By Findspot 185
B. By acquiring museum 191
Illustrations 195

Distribution map of Treasure finds 2003 254
Note: all objects (other than Bronze Age hoards and coins) are illustrated at approximately twice life-size, except where otherwise stated.

All images are © Trustees of the British Museum except for the following: Buckinghamshire County Museum (220 & 314); Colchester Museums Service

(134,165, 325, 303); Dorset County Council (139); Exeter University (26); Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge (81); Isle of Wight Council (234, 331);

Kent County Council (15.1, 18, 19, 295); Lincolnshire County Council (113); National Museums & Galleries of Wales (402-425); Norfolk Museums

and Archaeology Service (34, 35, 67, 76, 84, 88, 90, 91, 127, 143, 166, 195.1, 195.2, 201, 208, 223, 251, 231, 235, 236, 266, 246, 279, 322); Rail Link

Engineering (122.1 & 2, 125.1, 125.2); Somerset County Museums Service (248); Suffolk County Council Archaeology Service (209, 146, 224, 225, 238);

Sussex Archaeological Society (250); Warwickshire Museum (221); Winchester Museums Service (116, 148, 299); Wiltshire Archaeological Society (177).
Treasure Annual Report 2003 3
Foreword
This is the sixth Annual Report to Parliament on the operation of the Treasure
Act 1996. Like its predecessors, it lists all the finds that were reported as
potential treasure to the British Museum, the National Museums & Galleries
of Wales and the Environment and Heritage Service, Northern Ireland.
The number of finds being reported as Treasure is continuing to increase
rapidly. In 2001 there were 214 cases, while this Report contains details of
427 new cases reported during 2003. Of these cases, 200 new Treasure finds
have been, or are being, acquired by museums across the country. This
increase is largely due to the expansion of the Portable Antiquities Scheme in
2003, when 21 new Finds Liaison Officers were appointed across the country. FLOs play a crucial
role in the effective operation of the Act, encouraging finders to report their finds and guiding them
through the Treasure process.
This Report contains an analysis which shows that the average number of Treasure finds from those
areas where FLOs were newly appointed in 2003 increased by a factor of 3.7, whereas elsewhere
the average rate of increase was by a factor of only 1.8. I am delighted that, as part of the
Spending Review 2004, my department was able to announce full funding for the Portable
Antiquities Scheme from March 2006, when the current period of Heritage Lottery Funding ends,
for the forseeable future.
Metal detectorists found 92 per cent of Treasure cases in this report and, like my predecessors, I
would like thank them and draw attention to the positive outcome of their contribution. As a result
of their participation, museums throughout the country can offer a wider selection of Treasure to
the viewing public and therefore promote interest in local history and national heritage.
Furthermore, I wish to commend the generosity and kindness of finders and landowners who were
willing to forgo their claim to a reward to allow museums and public collections to acquire finds
without payment.
I would also like to pay tribute to the contribution that the staff of the British Museum and the
National Museums & Galleries of Wales have made to the Treasure process as their workload
continues to increase.
The Coroners’ Service has a central role in the Treasure system and we continue to appreciate the
part played by all coroners and, in particular, Victor Round, H M Coroner for Worcestershire, and
Secretary of the Coroners’ Society of England and Wales.
I am particularly grateful to the Treasure Valuation Committee and its panel of expert advisers for
their work. Last year the Committee, which provides Ministers with independent advice on the
valuation of Treasure finds that museums wish to acquire, dealt with 218 new cases.
I am indebted to the Chairman of the Committee, Professor Norman Palmer, and to its members,
Mr Trevor Austin, Mr Thomas Curtis, Dr Arthur MacGregor, Dr Jack Ogden and Ms May Sinclair for
the very careful consideration they have given to these and all the other cases that have come
before them.
4 Treasure Annual Report 2003
I would also like to pay tribute to the members of the panel of expert advisers from whom the

Committee commissions provisional valuations: Mr Michael Sharp of Dix Noonan Webb, Mr James

Ede of Charles Ede Ltd, Mr Tom Eden of Morton and Eden, Ms Elizabeth Mitchell of Sotheby’s,

Ms Joanna van der Lande of Bonham’s, Ms Susan Hadida of Faustus Ancient Art, Ms Mary Fielden,

Mr Peter Clayton of Seaby’s and Mr Richard Falkiner. Their expertise is a vital part of the

valuation process.

Funding bodies play an essential role in supporting the acquisition of Treasure finds by museums,

particularly the Art Fund, V&A/MLA Purchase Grant Fund, and the recently-established Headley

Museums Treasure Acquisition Scheme (www.headleytreasures.org.uk), which operates in

conjunction with the Purchase Grant Fund. I am delighted that the Trustees of the Sainsbury Family

Charitable Trusts have decided to continue the Headley Museums Treasure Acquisition Scheme. It is

gratifying that 17 of the finds listed in this Report were purchased with the Scheme’s assistance.

Lastly, I would like to thank the 65 contributors for their entries in this Report as well as the editors,

especially Dr Anna Gannon. Besides fulfilling a statutory obligation, these Annual Reports are

becoming an ever-more important record of Treasure finds.

David Lammy

Minister for Culture

November 2004
Treasure Annual Report 2003 5
Introduction
Increase in Treasure cases
This year’s Annual Report, which includes details of 427 cases, compared with 234 in the previous
Report, is the first to reflect the impact of the appointment in 2003 of 21 new Finds Liaison Officers
(FLOs) under the Portable Antiquities Scheme. Since most of the FLOs’ posts were created in the
second half of 2003, their full impact will only become apparent in 2004. Chart 1 summarises the
increase in Treasure cases since 1988, while Table 4 and Charts 2 and 3 below (pp. 13-14)
demonstrate the impact of the FLOs. Overall, their input has been most remarkable and particularly
startling in a number of areas such as the Isle of Wight and Sussex where the increase in reported
finds has been more than tenfold.
600
500
400
300
200
100
0
988 989 990 991 992 993 994 995 996 Act) 998 999 000 001 002 003 004
1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 e 1 1 2 2 2 2 2
ur
as
e
Tr
7 (
9
9
1
Treasure cases, 1988-2003

Acquisition of Treasure by museums
201 of the finds listed here have been acquired or are being acquired by museums and for the first
time this Report contains an index by museums of those finds that have been acquired.
As in previous years, museums have received help to enable them to acquire Treasure from the
Heritage Lottery Fund (no. 94), the Art Fund (2 cases: nos. 94 and 373), the V&A/MLA Purchase
6 Treasure Annual Report 2003
Grant Fund (22 cases: nos. 4, 7, 24, 67, 86, 93, 94, 96, 108, 119, 151, 152, 162, 172, 191, 214, 254,
348, 352, 373, 390 and 394) and the Headley Museums Treasure Acquisition Fund (17 cases: nos. 4,
7, 24, 67, 94, 96, 108, 152, 172, 191, 214, 254, 348, 352, 373, 390 and 394).
Nevertheless, raising the money to acquire finds remains a problem for some museums and it is a
matter of concern that, in no fewer than 33 cases referred to in this Report, museums expressed
initial interest in acquiring the find but then withdrew. In 25 instances, these finds had been valued
by the Committee. It is disappointing for all concerned when an investment of time and resources
turns out to have been in vain. In some cases where a regional museum is interested but is unable
in the event to raise the funding, the national museum is able to acquire in its stead, but the
British Museum, whose own acquisition funds are very limited and which is unable to access the
V&A/MLA Purchase Grant Fund or the Headley Museums Treasure Acquisition Fund, is not always
able to step in. However, the British Museum was able to save six cases in this Report (nos. 2, 6, 52,
95, 114 and 120).
Donations
One solution to this problem is to promote donations amongst finders and landowners and it is
encouraging that there appears to be a rising trend in donations. In this Report there are 9 cases
where the finder and landowner waived their claim to a reward and generously donated the find to
a museum (nos. 9, 13, 35,127, 379, 380, 384, 391 and 392). Furthermore, in 28 of the 31 finds made
by archaeologists, museums were able to acquire the treasure at no cost because the finders were
ineligible to claim a reward and the landowners generously waived their right to a reward.
Abatement of rewards
There are two cases in this Report where the TVC recommended that the finder’s share of the
reward be abated. In the first case, the finder did not have permission to search with a metal
detector on the land where he made his find and in the second case, the finder had overcleaned
the object (although in this case the museum did not acquire the find and so it was returned to
the finder).
Unreported finds of potential treasure
Last year’s Report highlighted concerns about an increase in the number of unreported finds of
potential Treasure appearing in trade, particularly on the Internet and this continues to be a
problem. The Portable Antiquities Scheme and the Treasure section of the British Museum are
continuing to have discussions with eBay with a view to establishing an agreement whereby eBay
will remove finds from its website if there are grounds for believing them to be potential treasure.
In addition it is hoped, with the support of English Heritage, to commission a study of illicit metal