Summary. A large gold hoard found 2009 in Hammerwich, 4.4 miles from Lichfield, was most likely an archive of treasure stored in Lichfield. Its many Christian pieces strongly indicate a link with the cathedral.
When a metal detectorist found a gold hoard on 5 July 2009 in the parish of Hammerwich, 4,4 miles west of Lichfield, it started an argument on where had it come from, whose hoard it was and who should look after it. An intense thunderstorm and a passing van with Viking Office Supplies written on the side was according to the finder portentous.[1] What followed was even more surreal. There were difficulties on who should look after the hoard, was it Stafford or Stoke? “The genuine need for secrecy and security, to protect the site from looting, was extended to absurdity by excluding proper consultation. Even the later period of fieldwork in March 2010 was carried out without wider consultation”.[2] It even needed a third visit to the field in 2012 to make sure everything had been found and it had not.[3] Many wanted to interpret the hoard before it was completely analysed and rushed into print. How pundits were allowed to conclude the date of burial must have been the latest date of fabrication of certain pieces was an embarrassment. Displays such as a huge reconstructed helmet suitable for a Roman centurion and emphasising warriors forever fighting have warped the history.
Field in the
parish of Hammerwich. Taken around 2000. Note the unexplained crop mark.
The dig in 2009. Thanks to Erica Bayliss for three images.
Even giving it a name was unfortunate. Traditionally hoards are named after the site where it was found and the magazine editorial in British Archaeology (Nov/Dec issue 109, 2009) proposed ‘Hammerwich Hoard’.
Hammerwich Parish sign. Note the strange Staffordshire logo.
Then several articles thought the site was in an
ancient area known as Ogley Hay and this name was proposed.[4]
Ogley has only been known since the Domesday Survey and could not have been
part of the earlier settlement of Hammerwich.[5]
A letter to British Archaeology (May/June issue 130, 2013) by the author
pointed to the inappropriate Ogley Hay name. It was followed by the equally
obscure designation of The Staffordshire Hoard. Ownership had now acceded to
the museums and their great need to display the only gold Anglo-Saxon hoard found
that does not have coins. It was frequently said we had not seen anything like
this before.[6]
Its problematical handling has perhaps not been seen before.
Without an accurate name came all kinds of conjecture as to why the hoard was buried in a comparatively nondescript place. That is, within the plough level of soil on a rise of marginal land within a boggy heath and alongside an old Roman road, Watling Street, that had become an Anglo-Saxon pathway. Also close to a pathway west from Lichfield that eventually reached Wales and a stream that eventually joined the river Tame.
Map of area before development of A5 and M6 (Toll).
· It was King Penda’s incalculable treasure obtained from the Northumbrians, 655.[7] A tribute hoard.[8] This relies on Bede’s account, see the post, ‘King Penda of Mercia deserves a statue,’
· A leftover from a raiding army that left in a hurry. For example, the Welsh attacking Mercia or even Northumbrians.[9] An angst hoard. This harks to the Victorian idea of ‘Anglo-Saxons’ being perpetual warriors.
· An assemblage of unwanted items destined for melting and recycling which never reached the forge.[10] A smith’s hoard. Liked by jewellers.
· A leftover from a Viking raid on a Royal Hall.[11] A booty hoard. Make a good film.
· A collection amassed by thieves and left as a deposit in a pagan sanctuary.[12] Bullion becoming a stash. The conspiracy theory.
· A votive offering comparable to Scandinavian deposits of broken military gear left in lakes.[13] A sacrificial hoard. One for the pagans.
These
wild theories can be linked to behaviours thought to have occurred with other
hoards and deposits; they are not isolated ideas which does not make them
relevant. Surely, no two hoards have ever been buried for the same reason.
The astonishment is all these suppositions ignore the proximity of Lichfield, Licetfelda, and an early cathedral-church initiated by King Wulfhere, extended by King Æthelred and the kingdom of Mercia established by King Offa. Lichfield was air-brushed out of the story.[14] When the kings were mentioned they were on manoeuvres, never at home or in their ecclesiastical centre. Somehow Sutton Hoo cemetery can be 4.4 miles from Rendlesham’s royal enclosure (50 hectares and containing a hall 23m x 10m), but no one saw Hammerwich being 4.4 miles from Lichfield and having a large, early ecclesiastical centre.
Sutton Hoo
site with the mound where the ship burial was found in the middle. Its
archaeology suffered from predispositions that needed later correction. Its
helmet is the best reconstruction, but not to be taken as certainty.
Even more astonishing is the interest shown in linking the hoard with manufactories in East Anglia, Kent and Northumbria without ever seriously considering craftsmen could be living or visiting inner Mercia. Appraisal of the hoard has been eccentric. Instead, consider the following:
·
The Mercian hegemony, kingly power, military prowess, priestly
importance, and the people settled around a significant river would have
amassed treasure. Mercians, particularly under Penda, were better organised
than other sub-kingdoms to loot. The collection of pommel caps and sword hilt
fixtures over a long time, 520–670, connected perfectly with the early Mercian
kingly dynasties.
·
The Easter Cross and Bishop’s handbell can be linked to a
growing Roman church and Bishop Wilfrid. The Easter Cross would fit onto the
cover of an altar display book such as St Chad’s gospels. The pectoral cross
must have belonged to a bishop. There are pieces that could have belonged to an
ecclesiastical elite, such as Mercian eorls. The fanciful idea of Christian
pieces came from priests fighting in an army belongs to a sixth-century history.
·
A lack of blades is easily explained by weaponry being an
archive kept in a church.[15]
The abundance of sword hilt pieces (97 pommel caps) might just be because the
sword is also a cross and the hilt is the head. Did the swords have a spiritual
significance? Read Beowulf.[16]
·
Majority of items were bent, broken or misshapen, but not
degraded beyond repair. They did not show destruction caused by conflict. It
was as if they were removed from use and placed in storage, perhaps ready for
repair. As if they belonged to an archive of past treasured objects. There were
also sets of pieces and again looked as if treasure from a particular time and
place.
·
A lack of horse decoration, coins, protective gear and dress
fittings would be appropriate for a church archive and not associated with a
royal hall or battle. Female pieces are missing and again this would fit with a
church and not a royal household.
·
An inscribed strip with its angst message could be connected
to a raid on the cathedral by the Danish Northmen in early 875.[17],[18]
See the post,’ Hoard Cross date.’
Drawing of the inscribed strip with its message of woe. A date of 8th or 9th-century has been given.
· Burial could have been at the beginning of an exodus into Wales and linked with the removal of the St Chad’s gospels to north Carmarthenshire.
It
is time for the elaborate conjectures to be buried and a prosaic, topographical
interpretation considered centred on Lichfield. The
Staffordshire (Lichield) Hoard is emblematic to all that was happening in the ecclesiastical
centre of Mercia.
[1]
Terry Herbert from Burntwood.
[2]
See Webster et al (2011).
[3]
91 further pieces were found of which 81 were declared treasure.
[4]
L. Webster, C. Sparey-Green, P. Perin and C. Hills,
‘The Staffordshire (Ogley Hay) hoard: problems of interpretation’. Antiquity,
(2011), 85, Issue 327, 221–229.
[5]
The hoard find spot lay within the extra-parochial area of Ogley Hay, now
part of the parish of Hammerwich, according to D. Hooke, ‘The Landscape of the
Staffordshire Hoard’, in Papers from the Staffordshire Hoard Symposium, H.
Geake (ed.), 2010. See https://finds.org.uk/staffshoardsymposium
[6]
Surely Sutton Hoo and the Snettisham treasure (and arguably others) are just as
significant.
[7]
Burying by the road from Wroxeter and Chester and not the north road to
Northumbria needs explaining.
[8]
See the post ‘King Penda needs a statue.’
[9]
Why a fighting unit of men should then decide to bury their booty is
counter-intuitive.
[10]
Why a smith’s forge should be close to a boggy waste land requires explanation.
The hammer in Hammerwich cannot be cited.
[11]
There is no evidence the Vikings went west of Watling Street in this area of
Mercia.
[12]
Why would thieves want to bury their bullion? Especially in a place where
robbers could have worked.
[13]
Depositing a cross as a votive offering is unheard of and Scandinavians doing
so in England is unknown. It resonates with the site possibly being an
Anglo-Saxon weoh.
[14]
A display of some of the hoard in the cathedral is not the same as emphasising
its significance.
[15]
The argument that the hammer welded blades are more valuable than the hilts
avoided the question ‘why were the blades not present in a booty or bullion
hoard’?
[16]
The subliminal suggestion is numerous swords and seax pieces showed the
Anglo-Saxons were forever fighting. Barbarians who must have lived before
Christianity arrived has now become new folklore.
[17]
R. Sharp, The hoard and its history. Staffordshire’s secrets revealed. (Studley:
2016), 76–7.
[18] See the post ‘When the Vikings came.'