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Treasures of the ancients go on display
Paul Jeeves ANCIENT treasures dating from as far back as the Iron Age unearthed by metal detectorists in the region have gone on show for the first time in York.
Some of the earliest coins to ever be used in the British Isles, called staters and dating from about 50BC, are being displayed at the Yorkshire Museum, along with Viking metalwork.
One of the highlights of the exhibition is an Anglo-Saxon gold jewellery fitting, depicting an animal's head and dating from the ninth century.
It was found by metal detectorist Robin Sykes, from Huby, near Easingwold, on farmland in North Yorkshire.
The find was sent to the British Museum in London where research was carried out to establish more about its origins before the piece was purchased by the Yorkshire Museum.
It has been compared to the Alfred Jewel, which is one of the most famous objects to survive from Anglo-Saxon England and is now housed at the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford.
Mr Sykes said: "This was a once-in-a-lifetime find – you can go thousands of times and never find anything like this. It was phenomenal. It's very high quality gold and wasn't tarnished at all.
"I picked it up, wiped away the soil and thought, 'What on earth is it?' It was a miracle that it survived because it is so delicate and was only four inches down in the ground.
"I'm delighted it's going to be on display for people to see and also that it has been to the British Museum and been properly identified and recorded.
"As things are found in the future, they will be compared with this and more about it will be discovered."
pr.jeeves@ypn.co.uk
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Saturday 26 May 2012
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