Saxon Gold on tv

[Caballo]

A great programme on the Saxon Staffordshire hoard- wonderful stuff.....available for only 29 days or so...
http://www.channel4.com/programmes/saxo ... od#3054879

[Robert Vermaat]

available for only 29 days or so...

Not in my area it isn't..

[Gaius Julius Caesar]

Saw a program on TV last night, well part of it anyway. I didn't realise there were sword blades found too!
They had a beautiful reproduction sword on the show as well.

[D B Campbell]

I didn't realise there were sword blades found too!

If it's the so-called Staffordshire Hoard you're talking about, there were no blades. Only sword fittings and the like, plus a folded-up gold cross.

[Caballo]

Yes, I think the replica might have been this one by Patrick Barta?

Sorry it didn't work in your area, Vorti...

[Gaius Julius Caesar]

I only caught the middle of the program, but they discussed the finds being in leather bags.....one holding the blades, some holdin bits of the gold, etc etc....The sword components and crosses looked to be the ones from the Staffordshire find, and they had the guy who found it
talking about the way he couldn't stop the gold coming.... :?
Now, as i missed bits in between, possibly they were discussing several finds, but it looked and sounded like the staffordshire find. :?
Discussed how one sword pommel wit hgarnets inlaid over small pieces of silver or gold foil, each cut to the same shape as the gem, had miniscule raised pattern of dots on them.....a fraction of a mm separating the points??

[D B Campbell]

..., but they discussed the finds being in leather bags.....one holding the blades, some holdin bits of the gold, etc.

Yes, they were speculating as to why the hoard is only precious fragments. Maybe someone else had the bag of dross. I'm not sure where the bag theory came from -- probably just wishful thinking. The metal detectorist had made a pretty good job of destroying the archaeological context.

[Gaius Julius Caesar]

That was what caught my attention, as I had not heard of the bags, but they specifically said a 'bag containing X number of pattern welded sword blades'

[Medicus matt]

I'm not sure where the bag theory came from -- probably just wishful thinking. .

The bag theory comes from the fact that several blocks of soil were lifted from the site which contained dense concentrations of items in a small, well defined area (see the xrays of these soil blocks on the Hoard website), as though they had been deposited in bags.

The metal detectorist had made a pretty good job of destroying the archaeological context.

Not really. Most of it was very near (or actually on) the surface. Recent ploughing had already scattered stuff over a wide area..
Archaelogists were on the scene within days spent months there (and they're there again) and lifted a lot of stuff on top of what the detectorist found (he didn't dig it all up on his own you know?). There just wasn't much context to start with.

If the new M6 toll had gone a few hundred feet the other way, it'd have gone right through the site <shudder>

Definately no blades found.

I made a 'blink and you'll miss me' appearence in the programme. 8)

[Gaius Julius Caesar]

Wow, I drive that most of the time I head down! So near, yet so far! Who knew! hock:

[Paullus Scipio]

Wow, I drive that most of the time I head down! So near, yet so far! Who knew! hock:

...just had an idea how to recoup the lost funds due to that dratted Icelandic volcano. :x

....fix a powerful metal detector on the end of a long boom to the left passenger side of your car next time you are zooming up and down the motorways - you'll cover more ground than possible on foot, and if the Staffordshire hoard is anything to go by, sooner or later you'll strike lucky.... D lol:

[Gaius Julius Caesar]

LOL