Newly Discovered Anglo-Saxon Island is One of The Most Important Archaeological Finds in decades

So says Dr Hugh Willmott of the University of Sheffield on the discovery of the remains of an Anglo-Saxon island , the island was discovered by a metal detectorist who found a silver stylus while detecting in a recently ploughed field , he handed in to the Lincolnshire Finds Liaison Officer who reported the find to the local Department of Archaeology.

Dr Hugh Willmott and Pete Townend from the University of Sheffield’s Department of Archaeology carried out geophysical and magnetometry surveys of the field along with 3D modelling to visualise the landscape and discovered the island.


The site has since yielded a treasure of finds including a further 20 styli , 300 dress pins and a large number of Sceat coins dating back to the 7th to 8th centuries.


And this stunning counter inset with glass strands , the workmanship is to be admired.

Dr Willmott, said: “Our findings have demonstrated that this is a site of international importance, but its discovery and initial interpretation has only been possible through engaging with a responsible local metal detectorist who reported their finds to the Portable Antiquities Scheme.”
www.sheffield.ac.uk...

This country is a gold mine of history.

sounds like it was a part of doggerland to me.

a reply to: stinkelbaum

It's to far inland to be part of Doggerland which is now under the North Sea, this was an inland island which could have been a monastic trading centre , I think the number of styli found is unusual and may hint at that.

a reply to: stinkelbaum


Gortex is correct, the presence of so many stylae would suggest a scriptorium probably associated with a monastic community, scriptorium were special room's or buildings located in monastery's were gospels and other texts were copied out, tranlsated and of course written by hand but back then written text's were mainly the provenance of the rich, noble and religious community's due to there relatively high value before printing was introduced to the west (I shan't say invented the chinese have been using it for over 2000 years) and of course monastery's often sought solitude for both seperation form the world and later for protection so many were on island's and other isolated places.

In Britain even over the past thousand years there have been vast man made and natural changes to the landscape with the diverting of river's, draining of marshland and boggy land for agriculture and mining.

Indeed the location of the one time island is actually still in what today is marshland.

There are many places that were once much closer to water than today is realised and often these places still retain echoes of there past in there name's, over on my side of Britain for instance I live on what was once the bed of a huge mere or lake and near to what were once the old shoreline villagers retain name's such as Mere Brow even though today there is no water in sight only farmland, other places retain name's referencing forrests, castles and fort's that are also long gone.

Anywhere you dig in the British isles you are likely to dig through history as there is little of this land that has not seen people at one time or another, many of our barren landscapes for instance were actually forrest long ago but there barren bleak stony rolling fields of today such as the down's are actually down to bronze and iron age settlers as well as later farmers and there is hardly a hillock that has not at one time or another served a military or settlement purpose from the hill fort's of old through the Roman's, Saxon and to the later Norman watch towers and Elizabethan warning beacon's which were intended to send word across the country if the Spanish tried to invade.

Doggerland though was probably only inhabited up to the end of the ice age which would put it far further back in time as well as being in that vast swath of lost land that is now the bed of the north sea, a bitter cold and stormy expanse of water which seperates eastern Britain from mainland Europe and was once the domein of the Nordic raiders and Viking's of old while that narrow channel between southern Britain and France which is called the English Channel today but was known as the whale road to the Angle's and Saxon's is actually a drowned river valley which once hosted the mighty river Rheine and into which the Thame's flowed as a tributary emtpying in a delta which has long been lost since the rising sea's at the end of the ice age further south.

But here is a tale you will not find on those more accepted site's, Britain itself was not always an island and it was once possible before the time doggerland became an island to walk across that land that is now beneath the north sea but this is far from the only lost territory.

Though this is a little off subject it makes an entertaining read.

This is a google E book so maybe not available everywhere but it is worth a read if you get the chance, hence I am putting the link inside some bracket's, just copy and past the link withouth the brackets into your address bar to read this interesting page.

(books.google.co.uk... 9C-HHaIY&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjh3taSzKrLAhUqAZoKHZMpBDIQ6AEIPjAF#v=onepage&q=sunken%20walls%20in%20the%20north%20sea&f=false)

Now back down to modern accepted archeaology there are other one time islands' throughout britain, many believe glastonbury Tor for instance was once surrounded by water and stood as a sacred island to the celt's and those whom came before them.
www.glastonburytor.org.uk...

Compared to the celt's whom were probably invaders and conquerers themselves though the Saxon's whom invaded shortly after the collapse of the Roman Empire and the withdrawel of the last Roman Legion's from britain are relative new comers to the UK, and of course they themselves then fought a succession of wars against other nordic invaders whom have all left there genetic and cultural legacy in the British people only then to be invaded by the Norman's.

In the past two thousand years there have been three great period of building in this land, the Roman's brought there architecture which though sadly now mostly lost mainly through the robbing out of later generations whom re used the stone's from there building's still remains in some places such as the foundations of the wall's of Chester and a few other locations'.

Heavily inspired by the Roman's and there legacy which they had encountered in France the Norman's became the next great builders and then came the industrial revolution which caused another great wave of building which led into the modern age.

But long before the roman's there were other great builders all across the world and even here in Britain.

www.urbanghostsmedia.com...
www.heritagedaily.com...


But one thing that for me make's this site more exciting than these older site's is that if it was as is likely a monastic community they may have buried there treasure to protect it from rampaging viking's and danish invaders, if so it would be relatively near by.

Though not monastic in nature the sutton hoo find's were particularly rich, they were however from a buriel site and pagan in nature.
www.britishmuseum.org...
Having definite saxon ancestry myself I feel a cutural bond and wonder if my ancestors were even related to these people.

But given how little we know even of the saxon period it is not surprising that we are still finding thing's about the Roman period which was even earlier.
www.gov.uk...

And if patient even a metal detectorist can make some amazing discovery's, gleaning the past from modern junk though that is the hard part in most places.
en.wikipedia.org...
mentalfloss.com...
www.moneysupermarket.com...
britainexplorer.com...

And somewhere out there may still remain the lost crown jewels of King John.
www.bbc.co.uk...

Still the true treasure of this site is not gold but it's cultural value, if it was a scriptorium maybe some of the illuminated manuscripts that still survive to this day both here and in Rome were many of them were sent after the Catholic church was re-established by western european missionarys (some from as far as the island's of Scotland and Ireland) after the fall of Rome were actually in part or in whole produced at this now forgotten but probably once important site.

Great news. As I've just finished watching "Detectorists" on Netflix, I had to chuckle.