Select Page

Image: Wikimedia Commons

The Huxley Hoard is a collection of Silver objects discover by a metal detector user in 2004.

The hoard is thought to date to the first decade of the tenth century AD. The 22 silver objects consist of one small cast ingot and 21 bracelets or arm rings that had been folded flat, probably for ease of burial. Sixteen of the bracelets are intricately decorated with stamped designs using a distinctive type of punch work.

The contents of the hoard are:

  • 1 small cast silver ingot
  • 6 flat arm rings with a stamped decoration of central crosses and a cross at each end
  • 6 flat arm rings with a stamped decoration of central crosses
  • 2 flat arm rings with stamped lattice patterns
  • 4 flat plain arm rings
  • 1 flat arm ring with an hourglass stamp around the outside
  • 1 flat arm ring with stamped chevrons, a central and end crosses
  • 1 arm ring which is now a twisted bar with a stamped zig zag pattern

The hoard weighs nearly 1.5 kg in total. The presence of the lead fragments suggests that the silver was either wrapped in a sheet of lead or could even have been buried in a lead lined wooden box, all traces of the wood having now vanished.