'Gangland bling' of Beowulf era to go on show in Staffordshire (UK)
Some Staffordshire clay has come home clinging to the sinuous curves and filigree ornament of the most spectacular heap of Anglo-Saxon golden loot ever found.
More than 100 pieces of the Staffordshire Hoard, a glittering treasure from the world of Beowulf, news of which has gone around the world in eight months, is back in the county that hid it for 1,300 years.
Many objects, including a gold horse intricate as a piece of lace and no bigger than a postage stamp, have never been displayed before. Among them are images of wolf warriors, first published in the Guardian. These will be in the exhibition opening this weekend at the Potteries Museum in Stoke-on-Trent, not 30 miles from the nondescript field where the treasure was found.
Local people were anxiously checking opening times at the museum information desk. "This is a part of our history and we still don't know the questions it will answer. It is a huge thing for us to have it here," Deb Klemperer, senior collections officer, said.
The same reddish Mercian clay that made the Six Towns world famous as the heart of the potteries industry and formed over a tonne of Saxon pots in the museum's collections, is clinging to many of the pieces of gem-studded gold on display.
One still has blades of grass that grew up through it in the newly ploughed field. "And there could be blood on them as well. These pieces still have a lot to tell us," Klemperer said...
Read entire article at Guardian (UK)
More than 100 pieces of the Staffordshire Hoard, a glittering treasure from the world of Beowulf, news of which has gone around the world in eight months, is back in the county that hid it for 1,300 years.
Many objects, including a gold horse intricate as a piece of lace and no bigger than a postage stamp, have never been displayed before. Among them are images of wolf warriors, first published in the Guardian. These will be in the exhibition opening this weekend at the Potteries Museum in Stoke-on-Trent, not 30 miles from the nondescript field where the treasure was found.
Local people were anxiously checking opening times at the museum information desk. "This is a part of our history and we still don't know the questions it will answer. It is a huge thing for us to have it here," Deb Klemperer, senior collections officer, said.
The same reddish Mercian clay that made the Six Towns world famous as the heart of the potteries industry and formed over a tonne of Saxon pots in the museum's collections, is clinging to many of the pieces of gem-studded gold on display.
One still has blades of grass that grew up through it in the newly ploughed field. "And there could be blood on them as well. These pieces still have a lot to tell us," Klemperer said...