Wickham Market Hoard
Encyclopedia
The Wickham Market Hoard is a hoard
of 840 Iron Age
gold stater
s found in a field at Dallinghoo
near Wickham Market
, Suffolk
, England
in March 2008 by car mechanic
, Michael Dark using a metal detector
. After excavation of the site, a total of 825 coins were found, and by the time the hoard was declared treasure trove
, 840 coins had been discovered.
The hoard was described as "the largest hoard of British Iron Age
gold coins to be studied in its entirety", and was also significant in providing "a lot of new information about the Iron Age, and particularly East Anglia
in the late Iron Age". It was the largest hoard of staters to be found since the Whaddon Chase Iron Age hoard in 1849.
The coins dated from 40 BC–15 AD and, at the time, would have been worth between £500,000–£1,000,000 to the Iceni
tribes who inhabited the area.
In June 2011, the hoard was purchased by Ipswich Museum
for the sum of £316,000.
stater—so called because of the hoard in which the type was first found in 1885.
A week later, in spite of snowfall since his previous trip to the field, and working in sleet, Dark found a further eight gold staters. After further searching, he remarked that his metal detector "suddenly went doolally" and that he "knew for sure [he] was standing right on top of a crock of gold."
Marking the spot with stones, he decided not to dig for the coins until the following night—saying "these coins have been waiting two thousand years for me to find them, so they can wait one more night for me" to explain why he had not pressed on with the extraction. With a spade, he dug out 774 more coins. The field had not been ploughed since 1980, and the ground had the consistency of clay
, but previous agricultural work on the field had scattered the coins over a 5 – area after breaking the top of the black earthenware
pot they had been buried in. Some coins were still inside the broken pot, and most were found 6 – under the ground.
After washing them in warm water, Dark gave the coins to the landowner, who reported the find to Suffolk County Council
Archaeological Service.
and Suffolk County Council funded excavation of the site between 14–15 October 2008, and found that the hoard had been buried in a ditched enclosure, possibly a "rectilinear
religious enclosure". During this excavation, 42 further coins were discovered, making a total of 824 at that time. Analysis of the surrounding area, including intersecting ditches, dated the burial of the hoard at around 15 AD, which was concurrent with the minting of the latest coin found.
after a coroner's inquest in June 2009, by which time a total of 840 staters had been reported. All but two of the coins had been minted
in East Anglia
by the Iceni tribe
; two were from Lincolnshire
. The vast majority of the coins were of the Freckenham type, the same as Dark’s initial find; there were a small number of Snettisham type
—named after the hoard in which they were first discovered between 1987 and 1989; these were also the earliest struck coins in the hoard, dating between 40–30 BC.
The modern-day equivalent of the hoard's value was estimated at somewhere between £500,000 and £1,000,000. This figure was arrived at by using the cost of military service as a comparison: Dr John Sills stated, "[A] gold stater perhaps bought around a month’s service in the 3rd century BC and five gold staters an infantryman for the duration of a campaign in the 2nd century BC, with ten gold staters buying a cavalryman." It was also based on the observations of a previous find in Alton, Hampshire
in 1996, when Dr Roger Bland and John Orna-Ornstein of the British Museum suggested a gold stater would be worth around £1,000 when minted.
The Freckenham staters were composed of an alloy
mix of 40% copper
, 20% silver
and 40% gold, sometimes called "rose gold
", but this was taken into account in the valuation. The collectors' guide, Spink’s Coins of England (2009), valued each coin to a buyer at £250–£700, depending on condition. Each coin weighed just over 5 g (0.17636981052556 oz).
near Milton Keynes
by a farm worker.
Although it is not known why the hoard was buried, there are several theories including it being a votive hoard, or a communal hoard "collected and buried for the benefit of the community", either as a war chest
for an impending threat or as a tribute payment to avert invasion.
Suffolk County Council Archaeological Service's Jude Plouviez said, "The discovery is important because it highlights probable political, economic and religious importance of an area", and that this particular find gave "a lot of new information about the Iron Age, and particularly East Anglia in the late Iron Age".
Ian Leins, then curator
of Iron Age coins at the British Museum, remarked, "It is the largest hoard of British Iron Age gold coins to be studied in its entirety."
, with the help of a grant of £225,900 from the Heritage Lottery Fund
and £40,000 from the Art Fund. The hoard would be put on permanent display at Ipswich Museum. The purchase price of £316,000 will be shared between the landowner, Cliff Green, on whose farm in Dallinghoo
the hoard was found, and the metal detectorists, Michael Darke and Keith Lewis, who found the hoard (a half share going to Green, and a quarter share each going to Darke and Lewis).
Hoard
In archaeology, a hoard is a collection of valuable objects or artifacts, sometimes purposely buried in the ground. This would usually be with the intention of later recovery by the hoarder; hoarders sometimes died before retrieving the hoard, and these surviving hoards may be uncovered by...
of 840 Iron Age
Iron Age
The Iron Age is the archaeological period generally occurring after the Bronze Age, marked by the prevalent use of iron. The early period of the age is characterized by the widespread use of iron or steel. The adoption of such material coincided with other changes in society, including differing...
gold stater
Stater
The stater was an ancient coin used in various regions of Greece.-History:The stater is mostly of Macedonian origin. Celtic tribes brought it in to Europe after using it as mercenaries in north Greece. It circulated from the 8th century BC to 50 AD...
s found in a field at Dallinghoo
Dallinghoo
- Location :Dallinghoo is a village some 3 miles north of Woodbridge, Suffolk, England.Formed from Church Road and Pound Hill to the south and branches NE after the centre of the village....
near Wickham Market
Wickham Market
Wickham Market is a large village situated in the River Deben valley of Suffolk, England, within the Suffolk Coastal heritage area.It is on the A12 trunk road thirteen miles north-east of the county town of Ipswich, five miles north-east of Woodbridge. Its railway station is located approximately...
, Suffolk
Suffolk
Suffolk is a non-metropolitan county of historic origin in East Anglia, England. It has borders with Norfolk to the north, Cambridgeshire to the west and Essex to the south. The North Sea lies to the east...
, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
in March 2008 by car mechanic
Auto mechanic
An auto mechanic is a mechanic with a variety of car makes or either in a specific area or in a specific make of car. In repairing cars, their main role is to diagnose the problem accurately and quickly...
, Michael Dark using a metal detector
Metal detector
A metal detector is a device which responds to metal that may not be readily apparent.The simplest form of a metal detector consists of an oscillator producing an alternating current that passes through a coil producing an alternating magnetic field...
. After excavation of the site, a total of 825 coins were found, and by the time the hoard was declared treasure trove
Treasure trove
A treasure trove may broadly be defined as an amount of money or coin, gold, silver, plate, or bullion found hidden underground or in places such as cellars or attics, where the treasure seems old enough for it to be presumed that the true owner is dead and the heirs undiscoverable...
, 840 coins had been discovered.
The hoard was described as "the largest hoard of British Iron Age
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 Ireland, and which had an independent Iron Age culture of...
gold coins to be studied in its entirety", and was also significant in providing "a lot of new information about the Iron Age, and particularly East Anglia
East Anglia
East Anglia is a traditional name for a region of eastern England, named after an ancient Anglo-Saxon kingdom, the Kingdom of the East Angles. The Angles took their name from their homeland Angeln, in northern Germany. East Anglia initially consisted of Norfolk and Suffolk, but upon the marriage of...
in the late Iron Age". It was the largest hoard of staters to be found since the Whaddon Chase Iron Age hoard in 1849.
The coins dated from 40 BC–15 AD and, at the time, would have been worth between £500,000–£1,000,000 to the Iceni
Iceni
The Iceni or Eceni were a British tribe who inhabited an area of East Anglia corresponding roughly to the modern-day county of Norfolk between the 1st century BC and the 1st century AD...
tribes who inhabited the area.
In June 2011, the hoard was purchased by Ipswich Museum
Ipswich Museum
Ipswich Museum is a registered museum of culture, history and natural heritage located on High Street in Ipswich, the County Town of the English county of Suffolk...
for the sum of £316,000.
Discovery
On 16 March 2008, a sixty year-old car mechanic—who originally wanted to remain anonymous, but was later named as Michael Dark—found his first gold coin after twenty-five years of metal detecting in fields in the Wickham Market area. Dark identified the coin, via the internet, as a FreckenhamFreckenham
Freckenham is a small rural village located in Suffolk, East Anglia, in the country of England.Geographically, it is relatively flat and has the River Kennet, a tributary of the River Lark locally known as the Lee Brook, cutting through the centre of the village...
stater—so called because of the hoard in which the type was first found in 1885.
A week later, in spite of snowfall since his previous trip to the field, and working in sleet, Dark found a further eight gold staters. After further searching, he remarked that his metal detector "suddenly went doolally" and that he "knew for sure [he] was standing right on top of a crock of gold."
Marking the spot with stones, he decided not to dig for the coins until the following night—saying "these coins have been waiting two thousand years for me to find them, so they can wait one more night for me" to explain why he had not pressed on with the extraction. With a spade, he dug out 774 more coins. The field had not been ploughed since 1980, and the ground had the consistency of clay
Clay
Clay is a general term including many combinations of one or more clay minerals with traces of metal oxides and organic matter. Geologic clay deposits are mostly composed of phyllosilicate minerals containing variable amounts of water trapped in the mineral structure.- Formation :Clay minerals...
, but previous agricultural work on the field had scattered the coins over a 5 – area after breaking the top of the black earthenware
Earthenware
Earthenware is a common ceramic material, which is used extensively for pottery tableware and decorative objects.-Types of earthenware:Although body formulations vary between countries and even between individual makers, a generic composition is 25% ball clay, 28% kaolin, 32% quartz, and 15%...
pot they had been buried in. Some coins were still inside the broken pot, and most were found 6 – under the ground.
After washing them in warm water, Dark gave the coins to the landowner, who reported the find to Suffolk County Council
Suffolk County Council
Suffolk County Council is the administrative authority for the county of Suffolk, England. It is run by 72 elected county councillors representing 63 divisions...
Archaeological Service.
Excavation
The British MuseumBritish Museum
The British Museum is a museum of human history and culture in London. Its collections, which number more than seven million objects, are amongst the largest and most comprehensive in the world and originate from all continents, illustrating and documenting the story of human culture from its...
and Suffolk County Council funded excavation of the site between 14–15 October 2008, and found that the hoard had been buried in a ditched enclosure, possibly a "rectilinear
Rectilinear polygon
A rectilinear polygon is a polygon all of whose edges meet at right angles. Thus the interior angle at each vertex is either 90° or 270°. Rectilinear polygons are a special case of isothetic polygons....
religious enclosure". During this excavation, 42 further coins were discovered, making a total of 824 at that time. Analysis of the surrounding area, including intersecting ditches, dated the burial of the hoard at around 15 AD, which was concurrent with the minting of the latest coin found.
Composition
The coins were declared treasureTreasure trove
A treasure trove may broadly be defined as an amount of money or coin, gold, silver, plate, or bullion found hidden underground or in places such as cellars or attics, where the treasure seems old enough for it to be presumed that the true owner is dead and the heirs undiscoverable...
after a coroner's inquest in June 2009, by which time a total of 840 staters had been reported. All but two of the coins had been minted
Mint (coin)
A mint is an industrial facility which manufactures coins for currency.The history of mints correlates closely with the history of coins. One difference is that the history of the mint is usually closely tied to the political situation of an era...
in East Anglia
East Anglia
East Anglia is a traditional name for a region of eastern England, named after an ancient Anglo-Saxon kingdom, the Kingdom of the East Angles. The Angles took their name from their homeland Angeln, in northern Germany. East Anglia initially consisted of Norfolk and Suffolk, but upon the marriage of...
by the Iceni tribe
Iceni
The Iceni or Eceni were a British tribe who inhabited an area of East Anglia corresponding roughly to the modern-day county of Norfolk between the 1st century BC and the 1st century AD...
; two were from Lincolnshire
Lincolnshire
Lincolnshire is a county in the east of England. It borders Norfolk to the south east, Cambridgeshire to the south, Rutland to the south west, Leicestershire and Nottinghamshire to the west, South Yorkshire to the north west, and the East Riding of Yorkshire to the north. It also borders...
. The vast majority of the coins were of the Freckenham type, the same as Dark’s initial find; there were a small number of Snettisham type
Snettisham Hoard
The Snettisham Hoard, Snettisham Treasure or Snettisham Torc, 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....
—named after the hoard in which they were first discovered between 1987 and 1989; these were also the earliest struck coins in the hoard, dating between 40–30 BC.
The modern-day equivalent of the hoard's value was estimated at somewhere between £500,000 and £1,000,000. This figure was arrived at by using the cost of military service as a comparison: Dr John Sills stated, "[A] gold stater perhaps bought around a month’s service in the 3rd century BC and five gold staters an infantryman for the duration of a campaign in the 2nd century BC, with ten gold staters buying a cavalryman." It was also based on the observations of a previous find in Alton, Hampshire
Alton, Hampshire
Alton is a historic market town and civil parish in the East Hampshire district of the English county of Hampshire. It had a population of 16,584 at the 1991 census and is administered by East Hampshire district council. It is located on the source of the River Wey and is the highest town in...
in 1996, when Dr Roger Bland and John Orna-Ornstein of the British Museum suggested a gold stater would be worth around £1,000 when minted.
The Freckenham staters were composed of an alloy
Alloy
An alloy is a mixture or metallic solid solution composed of two or more elements. Complete solid solution alloys give single solid phase microstructure, while partial solutions give two or more phases that may or may not be homogeneous in distribution, depending on thermal history...
mix of 40% copper
Copper
Copper is a chemical element with the symbol Cu and atomic number 29. It is a ductile metal with very high thermal and electrical conductivity. Pure copper is soft and malleable; an exposed surface has a reddish-orange tarnish...
, 20% silver
Silver
Silver is a metallic chemical element with the chemical symbol Ag and atomic number 47. A soft, white, lustrous transition metal, it has the highest electrical conductivity of any element and the highest thermal conductivity of any metal...
and 40% gold, sometimes called "rose gold
Colored gold
While pure gold is yellow in color, colored gold can be developed into various colors. These colors are generally obtained by alloying gold with other elements in various proportions....
", but this was taken into account in the valuation. The collectors' guide, Spink’s Coins of England (2009), valued each coin to a buyer at £250–£700, depending on condition. Each coin weighed just over 5 g (0.17636981052556 oz).
Importance
The hoard was the largest number of Iron Age gold staters found since 1849, when between 450 to 800 and 2,000 were found in a field on Whaddon ChaseWhaddon, Buckinghamshire
For other villages with the same name, see Whaddon.Whaddon is a village and also a civil parish within Aylesbury Vale district, in Buckinghamshire.The village name is Anglo Saxon in origin, and means 'hill where wheat is grown'...
near Milton Keynes
Milton Keynes
Milton Keynes , sometimes abbreviated MK, is a large town in Buckinghamshire, in the south east of England, about north-west of London. It is the administrative centre of the Borough of Milton Keynes...
by a farm worker.
Although it is not known why the hoard was buried, there are several theories including it being a votive hoard, or a communal hoard "collected and buried for the benefit of the community", either as a war chest
War chest
In arms and armor, a war chest is a container for the personal weapons and protective gear of a citizen-soldier, kept in the household, and is the origin of the term.-In politics:...
for an impending threat or as a tribute payment to avert invasion.
Suffolk County Council Archaeological Service's Jude Plouviez said, "The discovery is important because it highlights probable political, economic and religious importance of an area", and that this particular find gave "a lot of new information about the Iron Age, and particularly East Anglia in the late Iron Age".
Ian Leins, then curator
Curator
A curator is a manager or overseer. Traditionally, a curator or keeper of a cultural heritage institution is a content specialist responsible for an institution's collections and involved with the interpretation of heritage material...
of Iron Age coins at the British Museum, remarked, "It is the largest hoard of British Iron Age gold coins to be studied in its entirety."
Display
In June 2011 it was announced that the hoard had been acquired for £316,000 by Ipswich MuseumIpswich Museum
Ipswich Museum is a registered museum of culture, history and natural heritage located on High Street in Ipswich, the County Town of the English county of Suffolk...
, with the help of a grant of £225,900 from the Heritage Lottery Fund
Heritage Lottery Fund
The Heritage Lottery Fund is a fund established in the United Kingdom under the National Lottery etc. Act 1993. The Fund opened for applications in 1994. It uses money raised through the National Lottery to transform and sustain the UK’s heritage...
and £40,000 from the Art Fund. The hoard would be put on permanent display at Ipswich Museum. The purchase price of £316,000 will be shared between the landowner, Cliff Green, on whose farm in Dallinghoo
Dallinghoo
- Location :Dallinghoo is a village some 3 miles north of Woodbridge, Suffolk, England.Formed from Church Road and Pound Hill to the south and branches NE after the centre of the village....
the hoard was found, and the metal detectorists, Michael Darke and Keith Lewis, who found the hoard (a half share going to Green, and a quarter share each going to Darke and Lewis).