Articles about the Scheme in the Guardian

Truce called in war over Viking relics

Archaeologists trying to trace how the Vikings arrived in Yorkshire as feared raiders and quickly became (fairly) peaceful traders and farmers have called a truce with people they used to fear as raiders: metal detectorists.These enthusiastic amateurs have been unearthing more Viking finds than professional archaeologists in recent years but damaging the sites by digging them up.But this summer York University academics are working alongside local detectorists after deciding there is more to be gained by cooperation than trying to warn them off. Their three-year project…

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Foil reveals Roman magic

The Norfolk gardener was quite irritated at finding bits of rubbish mixed with the expensive topsoil he had bought: he picked out what he took to be foil from a champagne bottle and unrolled it - to reveal a lost world of Roman magic. Experts from the British Museum and Oxford University have been poring over the scrap of gold foil, no bigger than a postage stamp, which went on display for the first time yesterday, with other archaeological finds reported in the past year. "It meant nothing to me at first, I …

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Viking burial ground dispels myth of longship marauders

A Viking burial ground, which has held bodies undisturbed for 1,000 years with all the trappings of the Sagas including swords, jewellery and firemaking materials, has been uncovered in Cumbria, after a chance find by a metal detector. The site - thought to contain the first formal burial of bodies discovered in England - is believed to date from the 10th century, when the Vikings had been Christianised, but were evidently still hedging their bets. Full details of the find at Cumwhitton, which has caused internation…

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Suspected Viking burial fills a hole in English history

One of the great missing pieces of Britain's archaeological jigsaw may finally have fallen into place with the discovery of swords, ship nails and a silver Baghdad coin in a Yorkshire field. Tight security has been put on the site since metal detecting enthusiasts came upon what is thought to be the first known Viking ship burial south of Hadrian's Wall. An exploratory dig is being organised for traces of rotted timber and other fragments. "I am 95% certain it is a boat burial," said Simon Holmes, archaeol…

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Treasure beneath your feet and under the waves

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Buried treasure on show

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Rare memento of Hadrian's Wall unearthed

The small bronze cup unveiled yesterday, found by two metal detectorists in a Staffordshire field, is the Roman equivalent of a snowstorm globe. The piece is exceptionally rare, of great historic importance, and beautifully crafted - but is essentially a souvenir of one of the most wind-blasted outposts of the Roman empire, Hadrian's Wall. The inscriptions in Latin include a name, Aelius Draco. Experts speculate he could have been a commander stationed on the wall. Only two similar examples are known. One was fo…

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New battle of Marston Moor

War has broken out at Marston Moor in Yorkshire, site of one of the crucial battles in the civil war. Recriminations are flying as thick as musket balls, after a metal detectorists' rally last weekend attended by almost 300 people. Battlefield historians are appalled by the event, even though it happened over a mile from the heart of the site where Royalist forces under Prince Rupert were routed by Cromwell and the Parliamentarians, in the evening of a battle which continued through a long July day in 1644. There have been reports of sackloads of musket balls being removed, …

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City archaeologist and museum director, Winchester

I have to say we've had some really very good things happen in the past year. We've mounted an exhibition, Treasure, of the spectacular gold iron age jewellery found locally two years ago. When the finds were declared treasure they went to the British Museum and we assumed that was the last we'd ever see of them, but the museum has been very helpful. We found that very encouraging, and we hope it shows a new approach to relations between a major national museum and a relatively small regional museum.We also managed to secure some lottery funding for the exhibition, £50,000, for things like improving security, which will be of tremendous long-term v…

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Bill to close legal loophole on buried treasures

West Country police recently turned out on a cold wet night, to follow up reports that two men were illegally digging on an important Roman site. A man with a metal detector was detained nearby, and hundreds of objects were recovered from his car and home. But of the extraordinary haul of Roman coins, scraps of armour and harness, a medieval purse carrier and a crushed Victorian silver thimble, only a tiny scrap of blackened Anglo-Saxon silver can be proved to be held illegally. The finds, more than 400 i…

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