Well, the 2016/2017 season has certainly got off to a half decent start with our third survey producing a complete mixture of finds and era's!
On the way to today's site I said to Rob that it's odd how we'd never recovered any staters here, gold or silver, as there is plenty of Celtic evidence there.
We arrived at permission MC and decided to carry on from exactly where we'd left off last Monday. The OSR had just started to germinate with little green shoots popping up everywhere.
Now, considering that this permission has revealed 34 Celtic/Roman brooches or fragments thereof, 10 Celtic toggles, 7 Denarii and 25 hammered it was NINETY minutes before the first find was recovered! This was a Roman coin unearthed by Rob who was to find another five whereas I couldn't find any!
As usual, I moaned to Rob that he was on the lines with all the coins and with that I found a tiny Celtic dumb-bell type fastener. This the smallest we'd ever seen, it's certainly weird that it was only last week that we recovered a lead Celtic toggle fastener of which again is the first we'd ever seen!
My moaning continued (about my lack of Roman coin finds) just as a lovely specimen of a Roman finger ring appeared and was amazed that it wasn't damaged at all. This was right after I'd asked Rob which line did he want to take as one went down the tractor tracks and the other a clear run of the field. I got the tractor tracks option!
This was about to change as Rob followed the tractor tracks around the headland and recovered a superb Celtic dragonesque brooch with its pin and beautiful enamelling.
The tit-for-tat continued as the next find for me was the head of a Colchester type brooch followed by a chain made with cast bronze links.
One of the next artefacts was a La Téne brooch missing its pin, I radioed this to Rob who was about 100ft ahead of me and he gave me the thumbs up (or I think that's what he was gesturing).
Funnily enough, a voice came over the radio and it wasn't Rob... it was some chap about 9 miles away. He asked who we were and we said we're doing a survey on a farm, he replied that he was ploughing.... before we could ask him about the farm we lost radio contact. Now that would have been one of our strangest permission requests!
Anyway, ten feet further on and my jaw hit the floor with a find of a lifetime.... a superb example of a what appears to be a Iceni "Norfolk Wolf" gold stater!!! Only four inches deep with a strange good/scratchy signal it came out of the ground in stunning detail and condition.
It was my first coin of the day (and yes... it wasn't Roman!)
I said to Rob you better come over and look at this as I threw my spade and gloves to the ground. At first he wondered what he was looking for thinking it was a stonking brooch or something similar, completely missing the stater shining like a sun amongst the soil. When he did see it dropped to his knees and picked it up........ we both looked at each in amazement and shook hands (our version of the "hammy" dance).
This was my second gold coin, the other being a gold quarter noble of Edward III.
Standing around admiring the stater wasn't going to recover any more history so we carried on regardless.
I couldn't believe it...... I found another coin..... and again it wasn't Roman.... it was a blinking Edward Ist penny. Am I EVER going to get a Roman coin today I thought.
Rob then decided it was his turn and produced a cracking Neolithic flint arrow head!
We decided to have a quick look at a field nearby whilst it was in OSR stubble and had been "pressed".
My first signal was a lead Roman gaming counter and then an annular brooch that had suffered plough damage but still retained its pin.
We decided to call it a day and head off to the farm to show the landowner what we'd found.
His son was the first person we saw as he was just off out to try out a new air rifle he had bought his son. As we were chatting he asked if we'd found anything in the field his uncle had searched adding that his dream would be to find a gold coin. I said funny you should say that...... I showed him the stater we'd found. He took a picture of it on his phone and text it to his uncle adding "that will go down well!!!" with a wry smile.
Off he went and we then saw the landowner who took one look at the stater then put it down to pick up another item and ask what that was? A coiled up Medieval strapend I replied.
The field next to the first one we surveyed has potatoes growing there. These are coming off soon and it is this field that may have the best finds to come....
High Def images of the days recoveries can be seen here.
On the way to today's site I said to Rob that it's odd how we'd never recovered any staters here, gold or silver, as there is plenty of Celtic evidence there.
We arrived at permission MC and decided to carry on from exactly where we'd left off last Monday. The OSR had just started to germinate with little green shoots popping up everywhere.
Now, considering that this permission has revealed 34 Celtic/Roman brooches or fragments thereof, 10 Celtic toggles, 7 Denarii and 25 hammered it was NINETY minutes before the first find was recovered! This was a Roman coin unearthed by Rob who was to find another five whereas I couldn't find any!
As usual, I moaned to Rob that he was on the lines with all the coins and with that I found a tiny Celtic dumb-bell type fastener. This the smallest we'd ever seen, it's certainly weird that it was only last week that we recovered a lead Celtic toggle fastener of which again is the first we'd ever seen!
My moaning continued (about my lack of Roman coin finds) just as a lovely specimen of a Roman finger ring appeared and was amazed that it wasn't damaged at all. This was right after I'd asked Rob which line did he want to take as one went down the tractor tracks and the other a clear run of the field. I got the tractor tracks option!
This was about to change as Rob followed the tractor tracks around the headland and recovered a superb Celtic dragonesque brooch with its pin and beautiful enamelling.
The tit-for-tat continued as the next find for me was the head of a Colchester type brooch followed by a chain made with cast bronze links.
One of the next artefacts was a La Téne brooch missing its pin, I radioed this to Rob who was about 100ft ahead of me and he gave me the thumbs up (or I think that's what he was gesturing).
Funnily enough, a voice came over the radio and it wasn't Rob... it was some chap about 9 miles away. He asked who we were and we said we're doing a survey on a farm, he replied that he was ploughing.... before we could ask him about the farm we lost radio contact. Now that would have been one of our strangest permission requests!
Anyway, ten feet further on and my jaw hit the floor with a find of a lifetime.... a superb example of a what appears to be a Iceni "Norfolk Wolf" gold stater!!! Only four inches deep with a strange good/scratchy signal it came out of the ground in stunning detail and condition.
It was my first coin of the day (and yes... it wasn't Roman!)
I said to Rob you better come over and look at this as I threw my spade and gloves to the ground. At first he wondered what he was looking for thinking it was a stonking brooch or something similar, completely missing the stater shining like a sun amongst the soil. When he did see it dropped to his knees and picked it up........ we both looked at each in amazement and shook hands (our version of the "hammy" dance).
This was my second gold coin, the other being a gold quarter noble of Edward III.
Standing around admiring the stater wasn't going to recover any more history so we carried on regardless.
I couldn't believe it...... I found another coin..... and again it wasn't Roman.... it was a blinking Edward Ist penny. Am I EVER going to get a Roman coin today I thought.
Rob then decided it was his turn and produced a cracking Neolithic flint arrow head!
We decided to have a quick look at a field nearby whilst it was in OSR stubble and had been "pressed".
My first signal was a lead Roman gaming counter and then an annular brooch that had suffered plough damage but still retained its pin.
We decided to call it a day and head off to the farm to show the landowner what we'd found.
His son was the first person we saw as he was just off out to try out a new air rifle he had bought his son. As we were chatting he asked if we'd found anything in the field his uncle had searched adding that his dream would be to find a gold coin. I said funny you should say that...... I showed him the stater we'd found. He took a picture of it on his phone and text it to his uncle adding "that will go down well!!!" with a wry smile.
Off he went and we then saw the landowner who took one look at the stater then put it down to pick up another item and ask what that was? A coiled up Medieval strapend I replied.
The field next to the first one we surveyed has potatoes growing there. These are coming off soon and it is this field that may have the best finds to come....
High Def images of the days recoveries can be seen here.
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