Anglo Saxon Treasure Trove Found

Huge Anglo-Saxon trove is found in English field
By Raphael G. Satter

Associated Press

LONDON - An amateur treasure hunter prowling English farmland with a metal detector stumbled upon the largest Anglo-Saxon treasure ever found - a seventh-century hoard of gold and silver sword decorations, crosses, and other items, British archaeologists said yesterday.

One expert said the treasure found in July by Terry Herbert would revolutionize understanding of the Anglo-Saxons, a Germanic people who ruled England from the fifth century until the Norman conquest in 1066.

He noted that Beowulf has a reference to warriors stripping the pommels of their enemies' weapons as mementos.

Bland said the hoard was unearthed in what was once Mercia, one of five main Anglo-Saxon kingdoms, and is believed to date to 675-725.