117/03
15 October 2003
Large increase in treasure finds on the way says Arts Minister Estelle Morris
The Treasure Annual Report published today shows that reported cases of Treasure can be expected to increase further with the expansion of the Portable Antiquities Scheme.
From December there will be a network of Finds Liaison Officers across England and Wales actively working with finders to ensure the reporting of Treasure finds. A study in the latest Annual Report demonstrates that the presence of a Finds Liaison Officer can increase the number of finds reported as Treasure by up to five times.
Arts Minister Estelle Morris said:
" Once again this report demonstrates the success of the Treasure Act. It also shows how improvements to the Act and the work of the Portable Antiquities Scheme have led to a substantial rise in the number of significant new finds that would otherwise not have been reported.
" I am also pleased to see that many objects are going to regional rather than national museums. This will enable people around the country to gain a greater understanding of their local heritage.
" Every now and then a superb find like that of the Ringlemere gold cup reminds us of our hidden heritage - the treasure that lies under our soil waiting to be discovered. It brings the past to the surface and provides tangible evidence about the lives and skills of those who preceded us. We now have a framework in place through the Treasure Act which enables the significance of such finds to be properly assessed by archaeologists and historians. That adds immeasurably to the understanding we all have about the history of this country."
Among other developments:
• although the number of finds was slightly down on previous years, this was due to public access restrictions as a result of foot and mouth disease and the long term trend still remains upward
• the Treasure Act has recently been extended to include deposits of prehistoric base metal objects and a better Code of Practice
• the Portable Antiquities Scheme, a voluntary scheme enabling all archaeological objects found by the public to be recorded, has now been extended across the whole of England and Wales for the first time
• the work of Finds Liaison Officers meant that a number of finds were reported as Treasure that would otherwise not have been.
• 78 local museums around England and Wales acquired Treasure objects in 2001. 15 were acquired by the British Museum
Items reported included:
• an early Bronze Age gold cup one of only two found in Britain and worth £270,000. The cup was found by a metal detectorist at Ringlemere, Sandwich in Kent, in November 2001. After further excavations at the Ringlemere site it is becoming clear that this was a place of early Bronze Age funerary and ceremonial activity. The cup has been acquired by the British Museum
• an early medieval imported enamelled gold finger-ring found by a metal detectorist in Warwickshire and worth £22,500. The ring has a gold cloisonne enamel bezel and may well be a product of a jeweller's workshop in the Rhineland area. It dates from the last quarter of the 10th century. The Warwickshire Museum hopes to acquire this ring
• an Anglo-Saxon silver-gilt mount fragment chiefly decorated with a long-legged feline creature characteristic of 8th century Anglo-Saxon metalwork and sculpture and worth £1,600. The creature may represent a lion, perhaps the symbol of St Mark and the quality of decoration would suggest it may have been an ecclesiastical object. The fragment has been acquired by the British Museum
• 23 gold coins dating from the 1st century AD, found scattered within a single field in the Chelmsford area, and valued at £30,000.
Notes to editors
1. Photographs of all four finds mentioned above can be downloaded free of charge from PA Picselect. Please go to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport folder situated within the Arts section of Picselect either at http://www.papicselect.com/ or through PA's bulletin board. 2. The Treasure Annual Report 2001, containing further details of all the Treasure found, is available on the DCMS website. Printed copies are available from 020 7211 6144 (public) or 020 7211 6272 (press). 3. The total value of finds in the Annual Report is about half a million pounds. The figure represents 89 out of the 214 reported Treasure finds. Confirmation of outstanding valuations means that the final total will be higher. 4. The Treasure Act 1996 removed the worst anomalies of the old common law of Treasure Trove and defined more clearly what qualifies as Treasure. Under the Act the following finds are at present defined as treasure provided they were found after 24 September 1997: a) objects other than coins at least 300 years old with a minimum precious metal content of 10%; b) all groups of coins from the same find at least 300 years old (if the coins have a precious metal content of less than 10% then the hoard must consist of at least 10 coins) and c) objects found in association with Treasure.
5. In 2001 the criteria for Treasure were extended to include any group of two or more metallic objects of any composition of prehistoric date that come from the same find. 6. The Portable Antiquities Scheme receives funding from the Heritage Lottery Fund and is managed by a consortium of national bodies led by Resource: the Council for Museums, Archives and Libraries. Further information on the Portable Antiquities Scheme is available from the website or telephone 020 7323 8611 (Roger Bland or Michael Lewis). 7. The British Museum is due to hold an exhibition, Buried Treasure: Finding Our Past
between 21 November 2003 - 14 March 2004. The exhibition includes some of the most spectacular finds from British history, most of which have been found by chance, by members of the public. These finds have come to light through the Treasure Act and Portable Antiquities Scheme and have revolutionised our understanding of the past. After London, the exhibition will tour to Cardiff, Manchester, Newcastle and Norwich.
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