Brian Dixon
- Location: Dover
- Registered: 23 Sep 2008
- Posts: 23,940
17 November 2010
20:1480546a young 3 year old with his grandads meatal detecter found a gold necklace worth 2.5 million pounds.the young lad was over the moon for finding it.
Guest 644- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 1,214
17 November 2010
22:3080606Impressive, but to me the stunning Roman cavalry parade helmet found at Crosby Garrett in Cumbria last May by a metal detectorist was even more remarkable. As it was composed of copper it was not declared treasure trove and went up for private auction. Sadly in October a telephone bidder, possibly in the US, bought it for £2m thus depriving Cumbria of a source of tourist income and removing one of the most remarkable Roman artifacts ever found in Britain from the country. Imagine how we would have felt if it had been found in Dover? Imagine if our Bronze Age Boat was suddenly packed off and shipped across the Atlantic!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crosby_Garrett_Helmet
Guest 700- Registered: 11 Jun 2010
- Posts: 2,868
17 November 2010
22:4180609And of course there's the Ringlemere Gold Cup (Bronze Age) found on our doorstep ... but that is in the British Museum along with a huge amount of gold artefacts, which we saw at the special Gold exhibition about 2 years ago, stacks and stacks of torques etc. you would not believe there was so much in Britain. Guess that's why England was invaded so much. For the metals.
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Lincolnshire Born and Bred
Guest 696- Registered: 31 Mar 2010
- Posts: 8,115
18 November 2010
01:2980637Kath, Britain had no metal mines until the Wealden iron-ore was found in the Middle Ages. The used bronze tools found in Dover Harbour, deriving from a Bronze Age cargo that didn't quite make it, is an example of how bronze was imported from Gaul, to be melted down in Dover and distributed far and wide in Britain. The Gold was probably obtained by exporting vases, grain and manufacts in general.
Guest 696- Registered: 31 Mar 2010
- Posts: 8,115
18 November 2010
01:3980638Phil, our Bronze Age boat, registered at Dover about 1550 years B.C., is the oldest known sea-faring vessel in the world. Dover is probably the oldest settlement in the British Isles, and the oldest port.
Our oldest known manufacts go back to 1800 years B.C., and were found in the Castle area.
Dover has precedence over Rome, and we even inherited the Roman House, freshly painted and all!
Guest 644- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 1,214
18 November 2010
09:1480652No Alex. Although bronze was imported as you say, Britain certainly had prehistoric metal mines. Copper mines dating to a few hundred years earlier than our Bronze Age Boat have been identified in Wales, at Cwmtstryth, an opencast mine at The Great Orme and elsewhere. Copper was imported from Ireland in the Bronze Age and production continued through the Iron Age in the Peak District and the Mendips. The Romans constructed a large and complex mining system at Dolacothi in Wales to extract gold.
Apologies to disappoint, but The Dover Bronze Age Boat is not the oldest boat known from Britain. Three sewn plank-built boats have been recovered from Ferriby in Yorkshire that all date from a couple of hundred years earlier although none were as elaborate in construction as the Dover boat. It is speculated that these boats were capable of sea-travel and may well have been used to import amber, jet and metals from the Baltic.
Don't forget the Dover boat represented a long tradition of seafaring - it was clearly built by people who had a long history of constructing in that style.
Guest 651- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 5,673
18 November 2010
09:1880654Well said Phil !!
Been nice knowing you :)
Guest 655- Registered: 13 Mar 2008
- Posts: 10,247
18 November 2010
09:4180661I though that one reason for the lottery fund was to buy up treasures like that helmet for the nation and to stop them being sold abroad.
Guest 644- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 1,214
18 November 2010
18:2180705I believe the Heritage Lottery Fund set aside £1m for the helmet Barry. As the estimated auction price was £200-300,000 this was thought to be more than enough. However at the auction in October the price sky-rocketed beyond everyone's expectations.
As far as I can have been able to determine the "Keep it in Cumbria" campaign has raised nearly £2m since the auction. Hopes now lie in the Secretary of State to impose a temporary export ban under the grounds that it is an item of national significance, this will allow more time for the price to be matched. Fingers crossed.
howard mcsweeney1- Location: Dover
- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 62,352
18 November 2010
18:5880716sad to lose such artefacts to private collectors.
looking on the bright side that kid from essex will never be short of money to buy gold chains with.
Jan Higgins
- Location: Dover
- Registered: 5 Jul 2010
- Posts: 13,895
18 November 2010
19:0480721Phil, I hope the ban succeeds and it stays in the UK. Maybe the chinese vase sellers will donate some of their windfall to the fund.
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I try to be neutral and polite but it is hard and getting even more difficult at times.
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Brian Dixon- Location: Dover
- Registered: 23 Sep 2008
- Posts: 23,940
18 November 2010
20:5880734howard,in essex its called bling i do believe.
