Unusually for this website, there is another entirely different point that can be drawn from the Staffordshire Hoard, in addition to comparisons of Britain’s approach to saving artefacts for the nation.

This news story illustrates very well, the benefits of proper, well documented excavations – since the original hoard was discovered, many other finds have been made nearby & archaeologists are analysing whether these are a part of the same hoard or somehow connected to it. Much of the knowledge that we gain from these finds would have been lost though, if archaeologists had not known the full details of the previous finds on the site. When illegal excavations are made, not only do the artefacts normally disappear into a black market away from the public eye, but even if they are eventually recovered, little is known about exactly where they were found, or what other items might have been found in close proximity to them.

From:
BBC News

18 December 2012 Last updated at 16:38
Staffordshire Hoard: ‘Shedding light on the Dark Ages’

“The period is traditionally called the Dark Ages because we don’t know enough about it, but finds like this can definitely shed some light on that period,” says archaeologist Steve Dean.

He works for Staffordshire County Council and was part of a team that uncovered 90 new items of gold and silver believed to be part of the Staffordshire Hoard.
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For some, metal detecting is an innocent hobby with an occasional chance of making a big find. For many archaeologists though, the practice requires much tighter regulation, to stop illicit digging of artefacts without any proper excavation or cataloguing of the finds taking place. New programmes in the US, American Digger & Diggers, both seem to be encouraging this fairly carefree attitude to digging up the past & a there are a fears that a new series in the UK could also serve to publicise it.

Paul Barford has already written quite a bit about this program on his blog.

From:
Guardian

TV treasure hunt show to pick Britain’s most important archaeological find
Britain’s Secret Treasures on ITV to follow experts as they judge the merits of antiquities discovered in the UK in the last 15 years
Maev Kennedy
Monday 26 March 2012 13.17 BST

Historians and archaeologists are arguing over the single most historically important archaeological find among almost a million objects discovered in the UK in the last 15 years. Contenders include the heap of glittering Anglo-Saxon gold of the Staffordshire Hoard, a scruffy little coin that proved the existence of a previously unknown Roman emperor, a bronze token that some claim entitled the bearer to the illustrated services in a Roman brothel, a stone hand axe, or the eerie shimmering beauty of the Crosby Garrett Roman helmet.

The debate will be followed over a week of primetime television programmes being made for ITV, Britain’s Secret Treasures, to be broadcast in July and presented by the historian Bettany Hughes and the veteran journalist Michael Buerk in his first appearance on the channel.
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In much the same way as with the Staffordshire Hoard, everyone thinks it is a great idea that the Frome Hoard should be displayed close to where it was found. The same principle however is deemed as less relevant with items such as the Parthenon Marbles.

From:
BBC News

21 March 2011 Last updated at 03:24
Frome Hoard of Roman coins to stay in Somerset

The largest ever collection of Roman coins found in Britain in one pot will stay in the county where it was unearthed.

The Museum of Somerset has raised £320,250 to keep the Frome Hoard. There had been fears it would go to London.
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This is an old article, but I was only alerted to it a few weeks ago. It echoes my thoughts though, about the difference in approach to the Staffordshire Hoard (which should be kept where it was found) & the Parthenon Sculptures (which should be kept in the British Museum some 1000 miles from where they were originally designed to be).

From:
The National (UAE)

When troves are treasured: priceless relics far from home
Ben East
Last Updated: Jan 21, 2010

Oh the irony. The popular historian David Starkey is leading a campaign to keep the largest-ever discovery of Anglo-Saxon treasure in England’s Midlands, where it was found last year. If £3.3 million (Dh20m) is not raised in three months, the hoard could be sold on the open market – and broken up. The UK’s minister of culture, Patricia Hodge, said she was “confident” the money could be found and “aware of how much the treasure had captured the imagination of the local people”.

This, of course, is all happening in the same country that “owns” Greece’s Parthenon Marbles (famously known as the Elgin Marbles), Egypt’s Rosetta Stone and Iran’s Cyrus Cylinder. The three precious treasures are stars of the historical warehouse that is the British Museum. A visit to the much-loved attraction immediately reveals that it’s barely a museum of the British at all – it’s a museum of the world. It’s difficult not to feel slightly guilty about many of the exhibits, which were plundered when the empire was at its height.
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Following donations from the National Heritage Memorial Fund, the Staffordshire hoard will be saved for the nation & displayed in a museum in the region where it was found. This is great news for the preservation of Britain’s cultural heritage, but yet again I find the difference in opinions about retaining our heritage to the importance of others retaining their heritage astonishing.

From:
The Independent

23-03-2010
Staffordshire Hoard ‘saved for the nation’
By Danielle Dwyer, Press Association

The Staffordshire Hoard has been “saved for the nation” after a cash boost from a Government heritage fund, it was announced today.

The collection – the largest ever find of Anglo-Saxon gold – was unearthed on Staffordshire farmland by a metal detector enthusiast last year and later valued at £3.3 million.
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This (& many other articles) talk about the importance of the fight to keep the Staffordshire Hoard in Britain. When other countries ask for the return of their artefacts for similar reasons though, this is regularly described in a derogatory way with terms such as cultural nationalism.

From:
The Times

March 14, 2010
The long battle for the Staffordshire treasure hoard
For 1,400 years, a stash of Anglo-Saxon artefacts remained buried — until it was found last year by a man with a metal detector. It throws fascinating new light on clashes in the Dark Ages, but now we must win the fight to keep this precious hoard in Britain

It’s a misty dawn in Middle England, some time in the 7th century. A small band of armed men struggle up a wooded hill. At the summit they pause. While one keeps watch, the others tip their loot on to the ground. They divide up the jewels and coins, then they turn to the rest of the booty: swords, crosses, saddle fittings, which are mostly gold and exquisitely made. They hammer at them with stones and the hilts of their knives, they rip the pommels from the swords and stuff the blades into their jerkins, smash the helmets and bend the arms of the crosses until they look like nothing more than twisted pieces of metal. They stuff the small gold and bejewelled fragments into leather pouches, grub out a hole in the earth, and bury their cache. Then they disappear over the hill as swiftly as they came.
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As the appeal to keep the Staffordshire Hoard in the Midlands region continues, Dr David Starkey joins a growing list of supporters of this campaign all of whom claim that locating the artefacts near to where they were found gives them more of a sense of context – a historic resonance that they have wit their location. We should remember when this is mentioned that there are few cases where this contextual importance is as relevant as that of the Elgin Marbles – they were designed specifically for one location & many of them were in fact carved in-situ there.

From:
Birmingham Mail

Public appeal launched for Staffordshire Hoard fund
Jan 14 2010 by Edward Chadwick, Birmingham Mail

THE Midlands will miss out on a chance to purchase its own history if it fails to raise the cash to keep the Staffordshire Hoard in the region.

That is the view of the TV history expert Dr David Starkey who was in Birmingham to launch a public appeal to raise the remaining £2.8 million needed to secure the awe-inspiring Anglo Saxon treasure.
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Since its discovery, many officials have publicly expressed the imperative for the Staffordshire Hoard to be displayed in the area where it was discovered – with the suggestion that displaying artefacts near to where they belong is the sensible approach to take. Now it appears that in this particular case, both the Prime Minister & the Director of the British Museum support the display of the hoard in the area where it was discovered. Whilst these aims are admirable, they are entirely consistent with the British Museum’s stance on many disputed foreign artefacts in its collection, which arguably present a far stronger case, insomuch as that they were once integral parts of a building – they have a true bont to this context, rather than being loose items that could be easily relocated to any part of the country / world.

From:
Birmingham Post

Gordon Brown backs case to keep Anglo Saxon hoard in West Midlands
Nov 11 2009 by Jonathan Walker

There is “a very strong case” for displaying the historic haul of Staffordshire gold in Tamworth, ancient capital of the kingdom of Mercia, Gordon Brown has told MPs.

But whatever happened to the 1,500 items of treasure, the aim was that they should be housed in the West Midlands, he said.
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The Staffordshire Hoard has been on display in the West Midlands & is now going to the British Museum for valuation. Almost everyone who has been asked though sees this as something that should be kept in the area where it was discovered, to allow people to see it in the region where it was discovered – to create something which people can identify with as from their area & be proud of. This principle ought to be applied by the government & museums to many other restitution cases – unfortunately though it rarely is.

From:
BBC News

Page last updated at 17:25 GMT, Tuesday, 20 October 2009 18:25 UK
‘Admirable’ if gold haul remained

It would be “admirable” if the haul of Anglo-Saxon gold, recently unearthed in Staffordshire, could remain in the West Midlands, the government has said.

Culture Secretary Ben Bradshaw told the Houses of Parliament he was working with the regional development agency and others to make sure that happened.
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A number of the arguments for the reunification of the surviving Elgin Marbles are based on the fact that it makes more sense to locate the sculptures close to their original context. The reasons include that of seeing the sculptures & their original location (which they were designed for) only a short distance away from one another, that the sculptures hold more significance to the local community than to people elsewhere & that the sculptures form part of a local sense of identity. The institutions that hold the Parthenon Marbles (& many other similarly disputed artefacts) dismiss such claims as nationalistic, rubbishing the idea that artefacts make any sort of local connection.

Often when new artefacts are discovered, attempts are made to keep them on display locally to where they were found, rather than being moved to a bigger museum further away. The reasons given are generally similar to those given for the Parthenon Marbles. Such cases generally receive positive publicity & support by many who agree that the reasons for keeping the artefacts in the area near where they were found make sense. Many of these campaigns are eventually successful & funds are found to raise money for local museums to keep hold of the treasures. The only difference between cases such as these & those such as the Parthenon Marbles, is that the campaigns are started before the artefacts are ever acquired by the big institutions and that the parties involved are typically all contained within he same country. Apart from this though, there is little difference in the reasoning (if anything the Parthenon Sculptures have a far stronger case in this regard, as they were designed to be seen in a specific context.

From:
Birmingham Mail

Museums launch joint appeal to keep The Staffordshire Hoard in the Midlands
Oct 6 2009

MUSEUM bosses and city leaders have launched an appeal to keep the prized Staffordshire Hoard in the Midlands.

More than 36,000 people have queued to see the Anglo-Saxon gold since it went on display at Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery, which extended its opening hours in the gold rush.
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