Anna – Hoards of hoards…

15.04.10

Katie gave me a ring about the hoard as soon as she found out. When I heard her on the other end of the phone I at first assumed she was ringing about the rally we were attending in Wiltshire that weekend, so the news about the hoards came as a bit of a surprise!

“A local metal detectorist, Dave, has found a dispersed hoard of Roman silver coins in the entrance to a field. And you’ll never guess what… When he went further into the field he then found what he thinks is the top of a Roman bronze coin hoard in a pot!!!”.

“Two hoards in one field! Do we know anything about the size of the bronze one”, I asked?

“Not really, he’s been great and covered it straight up before calling me. We know that the coins are third century radiates though and he’s kept a few along with some bits of broken pot that were lying in the soil”.

I was amazed that the finder had acted so responsibly and promptly. What a challenge it must have been to leave his find lying in a field! Although he had covered it up really well to ensure the spot remained hidden, we knew that we had to investigate the site as soon as possible. So after saying goodbye to Katie I quickly called my colleagues at Somerset County Council’s Historic Environment Service (HES), Bob Croft (County Archaeologist) and Naomi Payne (Historic Environment Officer), to deliver the exciting news.

Luckily they were the position to help us by employing an independent archaeologist experienced in excavation, Alan Graham, to help us excavate the site if needs be. This was fantastic news as we knew that very few coin hoards had been properly excavated before, so we wanted to make the best of the opportunity that had been presented to us.

A time when Dave, Katie, Alan and I were all free was agreed upon and we arranged to meet at the site first thing the following Thursday…