25th September 2009, 04:55 PM
david Wrote:Question I have... and others for that matter....
the hoard is in quite good nick... but was located in a ploughed field... indeed, look at this image...
A friend of mine was at the press conference in Brum yesterday, and it seems that shortly before the discovery, the land had been deep ploughed with soil turned to a considerable depth. The double jeopardy here was that the field was due for some pretty intensive chemical treatment (I'm vague on this bit), but the upshot was that little would have survived that process. The presumption (because of the preservation) is that everything was contained until very recently, although no evidence of a casket or even a pit was identified. There are some pieces that look that they may have originally been fastenings that could have been part of the original container, but these are early days.
I know that some of you will have other positive stories, and many will have very strong opinions to the contrary, but this whole escapade is probably the first time I've ever really grasped the archaeological value of metal detectorists.