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The Leekfrith torcs are four Iron Age gold torcs found by two hobby metal detectorists in December 2016 in a field in
The find was publicly announced on 28 February 2017 at a press conference at the Potteries Museum & Art Gallery in
Leekfrith
Abbey Green
Leekfrith is a civil parish in the Staffordshire Moorlands, in Staffordshire, England, north of the town of Leek. The population of the civil parish at the 2011 census was 363.
It is an area between the River Churnet which is near L ...
, north Staffordshire
Staffordshire (; postal abbreviation Staffs.) is a landlocked county in the West Midlands region of England. It borders Cheshire to the northwest, Derbyshire and Leicestershire to the east, Warwickshire to the southeast, the West Midlands Cou ...
, England. The find consists of three neck torcs and a smaller bracelet, which were located in proximity to each other. They are believed to be the oldest Iron Age gold jewellery found in Britain. Subsequent archaeological examination of the area did not uncover further objects.
Description
One of the torcs is a smaller bracelet decorated with ornament in the style of Celtic art, and the other three are neck rings. The bracelet and one of the neck rings are made with twisted gold wire, and the other neck rings havefinial
A finial (from '' la, finis'', end) or hip-knob is an element marking the top or end of some object, often formed to be a decorative feature.
In architecture, it is a small decorative device, employed to emphasize the Apex (geometry), apex of a d ...
s shaped like trumpets. One of the latter has been broken into two pieces.
The gold content of the four torcs has been measured using x-ray fluorescence to be between 74-78% (roughly equivalent to 17-18 carat), with 18-22% silver, some copper, and traces of iron, mercury
Mercury commonly refers to:
* Mercury (planet), the nearest planet to the Sun
* Mercury (element), a metallic chemical element with the symbol Hg
* Mercury (mythology), a Roman god
Mercury or The Mercury may also refer to:
Companies
* Merc ...
and tin – a mix consistent with other Iron Age gold finds in Europe. The weight of the pieces varies from to , and over in total.
According to Julia Farley
Julia Farley is a British archaeologist specialising in Iron Age and Roman metalwork. She is the Curator of the European Iron Age & Roman Conquest Period collections at the British Museum.
Career
Farley studied archaeology and anthropology at t ...
, curator of British and European Iron Age collections of the British Museum, the torcs were "most likely" made in the area of what is now Germany or France, most likely in the period 400–250 BCE ( La Tène period). Farley commented:
Discovery
The torcs were found by Mark Hambleton and Joe Kania at around noon on 11 December 2016, in a field inLeekfrith
Abbey Green
Leekfrith is a civil parish in the Staffordshire Moorlands, in Staffordshire, England, north of the town of Leek. The population of the civil parish at the 2011 census was 363.
It is an area between the River Churnet which is near L ...
that the two men were searching using metal detectors. The men had permission from the landowner for the search. At the time, Hambleton and Kania had not discovered anything of note with their metal detectors besides Victorian coins. They had no fixed plans as they surveyed the field, having started metal detecting as a hobby 18 months before (although Hambleton used to go metal-detecting with his father when he was young).
They found the first three torcs separately, approximately beneath the surface of the field and around apart. The metal detectorists reported the find to a Portable Antiquities Scheme officer based at Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery the next day. The last torc was found by the same men, in the same field, several weeks later.
Archaeologists subsequently surveyed the site, but found no other items, declaring it a "complete find". They also found no evidence of a settlement or grave on the site. A missing piece of the smallest torc was discovered by the original metal detectorists on 26 February 2017.
Inquest
The find was publicly announced on 28 February 2017 at a press conference at the Potteries Museum & Art Gallery in Hanley
Hanley is one of the six towns that, along with Burslem, Longton, Fenton, Tunstall and Stoke-upon-Trent, amalgamated to form the City of Stoke-on-Trent in Staffordshire, England.
Hanley is the ''de facto'' city centre, having long been the ...
.
At an inquest held later the same day, the torcs were declared to be 'Treasure' under the Treasure Act 1996. Coroner for Stoke-on-Trent and North Staffordshire, Ian Smith, described the find as "not quite in the same league as the Staffordshire Hoard, but nevertheless exciting."
As a result of the coroner
A coroner is a government or judicial official who is empowered to conduct or order an inquest into Manner of death, the manner or cause of death, and to investigate or confirm the identity of an unknown person who has been found dead within th ...
's finding, the items were offered for sale to museums at a price set by an independent board of antiquities experts known as the Treasure Valuation Committee, with the finders and landowners sharing the money paid by the museum that buys them.
Prior to undergoing valuation, the torcs were placed on public display at the Potteries Museum & Art Gallery from 1 March to 2 April 2017. In December 2017, following a £325,000 fundraising campaign, the torcs went on permanent display at the museum.
See also
*Stirling torcs
The Stirling torcs make up a hoard of four gold Iron Age torcs, a type of necklace, all of which date to between 300 and 100 BC and which were buried deliberately at some point in antiquity. They were found by a metal detectorist in a fie ...
, 300−100 BC
*Snettisham Hoard
The Snettisham Hoard or ''Snettisham Treasure'' is a series of discoveries of Iron Age precious metal, found in the Snettisham area of the English county of Norfolk between 1948 and 1973.
Iron age hoard
The hoard consists of metal, jet an ...
large torc hoard, c. 70 BC
* Newark Torc, 200−50 BC
* Ipswich Hoard
*British Iron Age
The British Iron Age is a conventional name used in the archaeology of Great Britain, referring to the prehistoric and protohistoric phases of the Iron Age culture of the main island and the smaller islands, typically excluding prehistoric Ire ...
References
{{reflist, 30em, refs= {{cite news , last=McInnes , first=Kathie , date=28 February 2017 , url=http://www.stokesentinel.co.uk/iron-age-gold-found-in-staffordshire-moorlands-field/story-30167087-detail/story.html, title=Video: Iron Age gold found in Staffordshire Moorlands field , work= Stoke Sentinel, accessdate=28 February 2017 {{cite web, url=http://www.stokesentinel.co.uk/revealed-how-metal-detector-pals-struck-gold-in-staffordshire-moorlands-field/story-30169176-detail/story.html, title=Video: How metal detector pals struck gold in Staffordshire Moorlands field , last=McInnes, first=Kathie, date=28 February 2017, work= Stoke Sentinel, accessdate=1 March 2017 {{cite web, title=Staffordshire gold: Iron Age treasure to go on show to the public, url=http://www.stokesentinel.co.uk/watch-staffordshire-gold-iron-age-treasure-to-go-on-show-to-the-public/story-30169148-detail/story.html, website=Stoke Sentinel, language=en, date=28 February 2017 {{cite web, url=https://www.britishmuseum.org/about_us/departments/staff/britain,_europe_and_prehistory/julia_farley.aspx, title=Julia Farley, publisher= British Museum, accessdate=28 February 2017 {{cite web, url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-stoke-staffordshire-39113201, title='Oldest' Iron Age gold work in Britain found in Staffordshire, date=28 February 2017, work= BBC Online, accessdate=28 February 2017 {{cite news, last1=Kennedy, first1=Maev, title=Detectorists strike gold 20 years after leaving field empty-handed, url=https://www.theguardian.com/science/2017/feb/28/detectorists-strike-iron-age-gold-staffordshire-field, accessdate=28 February 2017, work=The Guardian, date=28 February 2017 {{cite web, title=The Leekfrith Iron Age Torcs - Stoke Museums, url=http://www.stokemuseums.org.uk/collections/local-history/leekfrith-iron-age-torcs/, website=Stoke Museums, accessdate=3 March 2017, archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170304114911/http://www.stokemuseums.org.uk/collections/local-history/leekfrith-iron-age-torcs/, archive-date=4 March 2017, url-status=dead {{cite web, title=Staffordshire Strikes Gold With Iron Age Find - Staffordshire Newsroom, url=http://www.staffordshirenewsroom.co.uk/staffordshire-strikes-gold-with-iron-age-find/, website=Staffordshire Newsroom, date=28 February 2017 {{cite news, title=Oldest gold ever unearthed in field near Leek, ruled as treasure at inquest, url=http://staffslive.co.uk/2017/02/oldest-iron-age-gold-ever-discovered-unearthed-in-staffordshire-field/, work=StaffsLive Journalism, date=28 February 2017 {{cite news, title=Earliest Iron Age gold ever discovered in Britain saved, url=http://www.staffordshirenewsroom.co.uk/earliest-iron-age-gold-ever-discovered-in-britain-saved/, work=Staffordshire Newsroom, date=19 December 2017 2016 archaeological discoveries 2016 in England 2010s in Staffordshire 3rd century BC in art 4th-century BC artefacts Ancient Celtic metalwork Gold objects History of Staffordshire Metal detecting finds in England Torcs Treasure troves in England Treasure troves of the Iron Age Iron Age art Hoards from Iron Age Britain