National Geographic Museum Blog

Interested in identifying what this mystery object is? Many guesses were given on the Staffordshire Hoard blog. Here’s a sample below with feedback from the exhibit staff or read the whole thing on their blog.

It’s a lid of some kind:

This seems a possibility. The open end of K130 certainly has rivet holes around the edge, showing it was fixed to something else. This could well have been some kind of stopper, possibly to fit into the mouth of a vessel of some kind. One favourite suggestion is that it might have been the stopper for a drinking horn. This would be the first one of these known, but then the hoard is springing lots of surprises on us. The vessel would have to be small though; we estimate the original diameter of the bottom of K130 was about 7.0-7.5 centimetres (3 inches).

Specifically, it’s the lid of a thurible or censer:

The big problem with this suggestion is that there are no holes in K130, which would actually be the cover over the burning incense. I can’t think of a censer cover that doesn’t have holes to let the scented smoke out. There is also no sign of any smoke residue on the underside of K130. (For the same reasons I don’t think it is likely that this the cover of an oil lamp.)

It’s a drawer or cabinet handle:

I can see where the idea comes from, and I agree the shape is very reminiscent of this, but I don’t think there is any evidence that the Saxons had such elaborate furniture. I also don’t think the assembled pieces would have been strong enough to last very long in use as a drawer handle.

 

At the National Geographic Museum we offer a variety of educational options to make your visit more hands on.

One of these activities is our Family Explorer Backpack.

Children and adults of all ages and backgrounds can enjoy the Anglo-Saxon Hoard: Gold from England’s Dark Ages exhibit  with our Family Explorer Backpack, free to borrow with your museum visit. With the backpack and accompanying educational guide, families are encouraged to put on their explorer’s hats and accept a mission of exploration and discovery, unlocking the secrets behind the buried treasure of the Anglo-Saxons.

At the end of their journey, young explorers are invited to submit their theory of why the hoard was buried.

Here are this week’s winners:

 

“I believe the hoard was buried and instructions on finding it were left to a nobleman. [For] some reason, the directions were lost and the treasure forgotten.”                 

 

Name: Matthew P.

Age: 12

 

“I think the hoard was buried during a ceremony.”

 

Name: Anne-Fleur

Age: 9

 

“I think that someone stole the hoard, possibly from a church or other hoard, then buried to conceal the evidence. The thief was then possibly too frightened or died before they could come back to claim their treasure.”                 

 

Name: Dorotea D.

Age: 12

 

“I think they didn’t want anybody to know where it was. I think they used an animal to dig.”

 

Name: Kate M.

Age: 9

 

 

Don’t see your theory here? Check back again!

The apex of Teutonic military craft was the long cutting sword. Averaging about three feet, blades were pattern welded, a sophisticated technique by which twisted rods and strips of iron or steel were hammered together. Forged from this intricate folding, the polished blades rippled with chevron or herringbone patterns. As one appreciative recipient recorded in the early sixth century, they appear “to be grained with tiny snakes, and here such varied shadows play that you would believe the shining metal to be interwoven with many colours

Source: http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2011/11/gold-hoard/alexander-text

Treasure was buried for many reasons: to keep it out of enemy hands, to “bank” a fortune, to serve as a votive offering. Given the era’s scant documentation, the motive behind the burial of the Staffordshire Hoard is best surmised from the hoard itself. The first clue is its military character, which suggests that the assemblage was not a grab bag of loot. The nature of the hoard accords with the militarism of the Germanic tribes, which was impressive even to the military-minded Romans. The historian Tacitus, writing in the late first century, noted that “they conduct no business, public or private, except under arms,” and that when a boy came of age, he was presented with a shield and spear—”the equivalent of our toga.”

Source: http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2011/11/gold-hoard/alexander-text

Magic may also account for the only three obviously nonmilitary objects in the Staffordshire Hoard: two gold crosses and a slender strip of gold inscribed with a biblical quotation. Christianity first came to Britain with the Roman occupation, faded as the Romans faded, and was vigorously reintroduced to Anglo-Saxon England by missionaries, most from Ireland and the Continent. There was a “perception of the conversion event as a spiritual battle,” writes Karen Jolly, an authority on Anglo-Saxon popular religion. Conversion was a battle for the soul—effectively warfare, something the Germanic pagans understood. And the cross was a militarily useful symbol that had figured dramatically in actual battles. Bede tells the story of the Northumbrian king Oswald, who before the Battle of Heavenfield against the Welsh in 634 “set up the sign of the holy cross and, on bended knees, prayed God to send heavenly aid to His worshippers in their dire need.” He and his men then “gained the victory that their faith merited.” Remarkably, one of the hoard’s two crosses was determinedly bent and folded, like so many of the other pieces in the hoard. Was this to “kill” its military potency, as with the swords?

Source: http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2011/11/gold-hoard/alexander-text

If you haven’t seen the photos from Brian Skerry’s Ocean Soul, yet, you are in for a treat. The dynamic images, like this one, captured beneath the ocean floor, enliven our imagination. In Skerry’s own words, here, find out more about Batfish, Japan:

Far from the frenetic activity of mainland Japan, marine life surrounding the Ogasawara Islands moves to its own rhythm. The undersea terrain here morphs from boulder-strewn shallows to coral reefs, each with its own cast of characters. In these waters the ocean has also transformed shipwrecks from bygone wars into lush gardens of life, and oceanic caves hide species not yet described by science. The gift that warm water provides is the gift of time, being able to spend prolonged periods in the water so that we can begin to make sense of all that we see. As we move slowly through these places, patterns begin to emerge and behaviors are revealed. In time, order is created from chaos

Source: http://photography.nationalgeographic.com/photography/photos/ocean-soul/#/batfish-japan-ocean-soul-skerry_43470_600x450.jpg

 

“This is a hoard for male display,” says Nicholas Brooks, an emeritus historian at the University of Birmingham, who calls the glittering objects found in Staffordshire “bling for warrior companions of the king.” Gold, weighing in at more than 11 pounds, accounts for nearly 75 percent of the metal in the hoard. According to Brooks, “the source is a mystery.” The origin of most gold in England was ultimately Rome, whose later imperial currency had been based on the solidus, a solid gold coin. Imperial gold had fallen to the Germanic tribes as plunder following the sack of Rome, and caches found in England may have been recirculated and recycled. By the date of the Staffordshire Hoard, gold supplies were dwindling, and silver and silver alloy were being used instead. Similarly, the source of garnets—like gold, a striking feature of the hoard—had shifted, from India to Bohemia and Portugal.

Source: http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2011/11/gold-hoard/alexander-text

The Staffordshire Hoard is remarkable for the extraordinary quantity of sword fittings. Most are of gold and many are beautifully inlaid with garnets.

Such elaborate and expensive decoration would have marked out the weapon as the property of the highest echelons of nobility.

The discovery of a single sword pyramid is a notable event – to find several pairs together is absolutely unprecedented.

The sword pyramid is one of a pair. These pyramids are hollow inside, with a bar across the opening rather like on a belt buckle.

Pyramids like this have been found in a number of Anglo-Saxon graves, lying beside sword scabbards. The pyramids would have adorned a leather strap that would have been attached to a scabbard (which is a cover for a sword). Straps like this are mentioned in the Viking sagas, where they are called ‘peace bands’. They could be tied around the handle of the sword, securing it in place in the scabbard so warriors were not able to draw their swords suddenly in anger.

Source:  http://www.staffordshirehoard.org.uk/staritems/sword-pyramid

Many of the pieces in the Staffordshire Hoard are decorated using filigree, a technique which creates patterns by soldering lengths of twisted wire to a base plate. This sea-horse mount is one of the most remarkable pieces in the hoard decorated using this technique. The filigree work on it is astonishingly fine –a grain of rice is longer than three of the spirals which make up the decoration.

The top terminal is shaped into a horse’s head, with facial features distinguishable by soldered bead style filigree outlining an eye and snout.

The body then curves to form a sharp outward point, and then again to an end terminal, which looks to have broken off.

Connected to the left of this is an extended piece of fashioned gold that may have been or part of an attachment.

The body vertically divides into four columns that match its length, and within each is a continuous pattern of raised thin double coils in a filigree design.

The reverse side has no decoration and is plain except for the impression of the eye and snout

There is some discussion as to whether this mount really represents a seahorse or not. Some experts argue that the Anglo-Saxons tended not to portray animals particularly realistically and that it is better to regard this mount a showing a stylised horse’s head. Others feel that the shape is so reminiscent of the species of seahorse that lives off the coast of Britain that the maker must really have intended to picture a seahorse.

Source:

http://www.staffordshirehoard.org.uk/staritems/stylised-horse

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This small stud, surrounded by gold and garnets, is a great example of early work with millefiori. Millefiori means ‘One thousand flowers’.

Millefiori is an early glasswork technique, which was also found in the Sutton Hoo haul. It is likely that this stud would have been a decorative piece on a larger item.

Source: http://www.staffordshirehoard.org.uk/staritems/millefiori-stud