Oopsie

[deborahw37]

I'm watching a programme on archaeological digs of Anglo Saxon sites in East Anglia. They were looking at bronze brooches. Some years ago I found a strange bit of green metal in the garden. I brought it in and know I have it somewhere but dismissed it as probably a decorative hinge off something fairly modern, never bothered to photograph it or

Comments

[kazzy_cee]

Interesting!!!

[deborahw37]

May be nothing but the knife handle and the other brooch pin I found there ( under the Yew Tree) are still with the archaeology finds service so I can pop this to them too.. if I can find it :)

[fenchurche]

I was going to say... you seem to be making a habit of finding cool things in your garden!

[deborahw37]

The village is inside a Bronze Age earth-working known as The Warbanks, A Roman Road runs through it and there are old flint workings from long before either so lots of stuff gets found here. The local farmer found a Bronze Age sword a few years ago

[curiouswombat]

Good luck with the search!

[deborahw37]

There's no urgency :) If and when I find it I'll pop it into the archaeology department. I suspect it's in the bottom of one of my hat boxes ( don't ask)

[pondhopper]

I hope you find it because I'd love to hear what the experts say about it...

[deborahw37]

They may of course say " oh yes that's a decorative hinge from a relatively recent box" but it was under the yew tree and would fit with the other finds from there if it is a brooch

[pondhopper]

It would be very interesting to find that out. One wonders who might have had their final resting place under your yew tree...

[deborahw37]

Well if they're not resting there it seems that they were very careless with their property :)

[gwendraith]

I really hope you find it tomorrow, Deb. I have probably seen the ones in the Ashmolean as I do go there fairly frequently when I visit the family (we usually take the children to one or other of the museums). It'd be interesting to hear what the archaeology department make of it along with your other items.

[deborahw37]

I picked it up years ago , well before I found the other bits and pieces and , at that point, was really only looking for worked flint so just thought " oh look , that's a rather nicely shaped hinge.

Then this evening they were showing some of the Lakenheath finds and thought " goodness that looks familiar"

[gwendraith]

Thank heaven you didn't bin it as a bit of old junk ;)

[deborahw37]

To be honest I kept it because I thought I Might find a use for it, probably good that I didn't screw it to a chest of drawers somewhere :)

[mummy_owl]

Quick! Find it!!

It makes doing the weeding a bit more interesting if you can come up with a wee treasure every now and then! It would be lovely to go and visit your finds if they ever go on display in the Ashmolean. :-)

I keep finding old bits of metal and glass in our garden but I'm pretty sure they're modern(ish). Having said that, the road we're on was once the main road going east-west along the french side of the Pyrenees and it's still on one of the lesser routes to Compostella.

Who knows.....maybe I should start keeping all the 'bits' I dig up!

[deborahw37]

If it is what I think it is it won't end up in the Ashmolian, more likely to join *my* knife handle in temperature controlled storage in the county archaeology stores; only a tiny percentage of finds ever go on display and these brooches are fairly common but it all adds to the records and helps tell the story of life here

Yes if something catches your eye then keep it; you never know