Thursday, February 2, 2017

How About Some Found Gold...?

We can always find stories of folks looking for buried treasure, but what about the people that actually find some ?

Here is a story about a man who was down on his luck, but soon after he started hunting for some spare coins turned bad luck into good!

Staffordshire Hoard


Photo credit: Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery

Metal detector enthusiast Terry Herbert was down on his luck. He asked a farmer friend if he could scan his field to find a few coins. Within days, he had discovered more than 10 pounds of treasure. This piqued the interest of local archaeologists, who decided to investigate the field themselves. They discovered more than 4,000 fragments of seventh-century artifacts.

After archaeologists pieced together all of the fragments, they saw that they had hundreds of completed items. Most of the treasure was warlike: sword decorations and helmets. The only non-martial pieces were three religious objects: two crosses and an engraved Bible verse.

Archaeologists were unsure why the hoard was buried. Some believed that the artifacts were booty captured during battles; the victors would have buried the loot for safe keeping. Others believed that the hoard represented an offering to the gods. Many of the objects were bent or broken before they were buried. This was a custom of Germanic tribes: They would break or “kill” the weapons before they buried them so that they would be sent to the gods in the spirit world.

This was the largest collection of Anglo-Saxon gold and silver metalwork ever found. Local museums purchased the treasure for £3,285,000 ($5.3 million).

I'd say this man's luck had become much, much better! I wouldn't mind a bit of that myself.

Coffee out on the patio again this morning. I'm loving this weather!

8 comments:

linda m said...

I sure could use some luck like that. Maybe I'll finally win Publisher Clearing House and be able to move to a warmer climate. Hahaha

HermitJim said...

Hey Linda...
Winning the PCH might be better odds in the long run, but who knows?
Thanks for stopping by this morning!

JO said...

There was a special about this about a year ago or more it was interesting. I bet a lot of it was broken while the farmer plowed over that land to. I often wondered if I would find anything if I tried.

Yes this is the best weather right now it is 40 right now and the days are so enjoyable. Cleaned the porch up and sat out there all afternoon. See on the patio

Hermit's Baby Sis said...

Bubba -
Since we've had no winter here, I guess the folks up north got theirs and ours too, huh? What about it, Sixbears - want to send some back down here? Yesterday high of 75, sunny, but a bit gloomy right now. Watch the Super Bowl and they'll tell you how great it is to be in Texas!
And yeah, I'm waiting for PCH to show up at my door, too! More likely than finding gold in my backyard!

Big Hugs ~

Hermit's Baby Sis said...

Bubba -
Since we've had no winter here, I guess the folks up north got theirs and ours too, huh? What about it, Sixbears - want to send some back down here? Yesterday high of 75, sunny, but a bit gloomy right now. Watch the Super Bowl and they'll tell you how great it is to be in Texas!
And yeah, I'm waiting for PCH to show up at my door, too! More likely than finding gold in my backyard!

Big Hugs ~

Rob said...

If Mr Herbert hadn't of looked he wouldn't have found it.
All this talk of the PCH giveaway, they do they what, once a year? There is a lottery drawing every week most places...if you're into that.

I think getting millions & millions would ruin my life, a $100k or two I could deal with :-)

Not warm enough or sunny enough for coffee outside in this part of Georgia this morning, time to head for Florida!

HermitJim said...

Hey Jo...
I certainly can't complain about the weather right now. Way too nice, ya know?
Thanks, sweetie, for dropping by today!


Hey Sis...
I hope you win the PCH money so you can take care of your poor old brother...! (you know I'm joking, right?) Right you are about the weather being great lately, though. I like it!
Thanks, sis, for coming over today!


Hey Rob...
I feel the same way. Gotta look for it to find it, for sure. You can always come to Texas if you want to warm up a bit!
Thanks for the visit today!

Dizzy-Dick said...

Wow, that guy was really lucky. If I ever found anything like that, the way my luck goes, I would die the next day. . .