Ipswich Hoard
Two of the torcs
|
|
| Discovered | in Ipswich |
|---|---|
| Present location | British Museum, London |
Coordinates: 52°01′30″N 1°06′24″E / 52.025089°N 1.106694°E
There are two notable Ipswich Hoards. The first was a hoard of Anglo-Saxon coins discovered in 1863. The second was a hoard of six Iron Age gold torcs that was discovered in 1968 and 1969. The latter hoard has been described as second only to the Snettisham Hoard in importance as a hoard from the Iron Age, and is held at the British Museum.
The first hoard was found in an earthenware pot buried about 10 feet (3.0 m) beneath the doorstep of the house at the corner of Old Buttermarket and White Hart Lane in Ipswich, which had previously belonged to numismatist James Conder (1763–1823), when it was demolished during road widening in 1863. It was reported as consisting of 150 coins, although only 75 are known now. The coins were all silver pennies of the reign of Æthelred the Unready, minted in London and Ipswich. It is tempting to associate this find with the ravaging of Ipswich which took place in 991. However clues in the coins indicate that the hoard may have been deposited between 979 and 985.
Five neck ornaments called torcs were discovered in 1968 by the operator of a mechanical digger preparing ground for of the construction of new housing in Belstead, near Ipswich, for which the driver received £45,000; a sixth torc of a slightly different design was discovered a year later by the owner of one of the newly completed houses when sorting though a pile of earth left by the building in his garden, for which he received £9,000.
...
Wikipedia