:00:10. > :00:12.In July 2009, one lucky find lifted I think finds like the
:00:12. > :00:17.Staffordshire Hoard show that this was a vibrant and colourful and
:00:17. > :00:22.bright society. The Staffordshire Hoard shone a dazzling light into
:00:22. > :00:29.the shadowy world of the Dark Age Midlands. And it's transformed the
:00:29. > :00:32.way we think we used to live. really must stop thinking that
:00:32. > :00:34.these dreadful barbarians come along and it's not until 1,000
:00:34. > :00:37.years later when the blessed remains of Greece and Rome are
:00:37. > :00:47.rediscovered that the dove of civilization descends upon the
:00:47. > :00:51.I'm about to take you on a journey into a mysterious past brought
:00:52. > :00:56.miraculously to life. I'll unravel the secrets of the Staffordshire
:00:56. > :01:06.Hoard and the incredible tales it has to tell us.
:01:06. > :01:17.
:01:17. > :01:19.This is the story of one of the 1,600 years ago the Romans
:01:19. > :01:29.abandoned Britain and a new, mysterious era in British history
:01:29. > :01:30.
:01:30. > :01:35.The Dark Ages is the name traditionally given for the time
:01:35. > :01:38.between the Romans leaving and William the Conqueror arriving.
:01:38. > :01:43.It's a time of which we have only dim and distant knowledge, and you
:01:43. > :01:46.can see why. Take this field at Catholme in Staffordshire. It
:01:46. > :01:49.doesn't look much today, but it's actually the site of one of the
:01:49. > :01:54.finest Dark Age finds ever seen in the Midlands. This was an Anglo-
:01:54. > :02:04.Saxon settlement of the 7th century. A thriving community with more than
:02:04. > :02:05.
:02:05. > :02:14.But these Dark Age Midlanders left precious little evidence that
:02:14. > :02:19.The problem is that when the Romans left, they took their stone
:02:19. > :02:22.building techniques with them. When the Anglo-Saxons built they used
:02:23. > :02:26.wood, that's since rotted back into the earth. What they have left are
:02:26. > :02:30.a few bits of fired ceramic. This is a weight from a weaving loom and
:02:30. > :02:40.this is a delicate hand-made urn. Basically they didn't leave too
:02:40. > :02:43.
:02:43. > :02:46.This has left historians with a major problem. How do you tell a
:02:46. > :02:49.history of Dark Age Britain with just a few occasional, teasing
:02:49. > :02:57.glimpses into life in these long forgotten kingdoms? It's taking
:02:57. > :03:00.pieces of a puzzle. It's like having a thousand-piece puzzle and
:03:00. > :03:07.you've only got eight of the pieces. That the sense with which we've
:03:07. > :03:11.been working up until this point. England has yet to be invented, the
:03:11. > :03:17.word barely exist. Instead you have these rival warring Anglo-Saxon
:03:17. > :03:27.kingdoms that behave like the worst kind of takeover bid is in the City,
:03:27. > :03:27.
:03:27. > :03:33.they decapitate a each other, literary. The idea that everybody
:03:33. > :03:38.live in huts and Halls and really did not have much quality-of-life.
:03:38. > :03:42.And that is why we get the term Dark Ages associated with it but it
:03:42. > :03:45.is so far from the truth. We do, at least, know that Dark Age Britain
:03:45. > :03:49.was an Anglo-Saxon country, populated by a mixture of locals
:03:49. > :03:54.and Germanic tribes, who arrived to fill the gap when the Romans left.
:03:54. > :03:57.Here in the Midlands there was a major kingdom called "Mercia". But
:03:57. > :04:07.until the hoard arrived, we knew very little about who these
:04:07. > :04:09.
:04:09. > :04:14."Mercians" really were. We just had The artifacts we have covered the
:04:14. > :04:17.whole day train from the 5th to the 11th century, that is a few items,
:04:17. > :04:25.they do not give us a full idea of how things were at the time. You
:04:25. > :04:28.could use documentary and you could use the fact that you have got
:04:28. > :04:38.sacks and carved crosses and so on to put flesh on to it but the human
:04:38. > :04:41.element is somewhat lacking. -- Saxon carved crosses. So, with just
:04:41. > :04:44.a handful of finds scattered across the length of the country, and a
:04:44. > :04:47.few surviving documents, historians had gone about as far as they could
:04:47. > :04:49.in trying to piece together an entire era in the history of the
:04:49. > :04:53.Midlands. Then, in July 2009, all of that
:04:53. > :04:57.changed forever. It began with an unremarkable request from a man
:04:57. > :05:00.with a metal detector, to explore a farmer's field in Staffordshire.
:05:00. > :05:07.We'd had several requests in the past for people to come metal
:05:07. > :05:10.detecting. Then Terry approached me and I'd told him no several times.
:05:10. > :05:13.Anyway he come on and asked me if he could come on this field
:05:13. > :05:16.specifically. And I thought it can't do any harm down there, he
:05:16. > :05:19.won't find anything. Fred couldn't have been more wrong. Metal
:05:19. > :05:27.detectorist Terry not only struck gold, he made the find of a
:05:27. > :05:33.I was working in the yard and he came up mid-morning and he said,
:05:33. > :05:37."Sit down, what's the matter with you? Sit down," he said. I said,
:05:37. > :05:47."What's the matter?" "I found a Saxon hoard". Well, I didn't
:05:47. > :05:51.
:05:51. > :05:55.believe him. I still didn't believe When the experts arrived, the true
:05:55. > :05:59.extent of the hoard started to become clear. This was a find
:05:59. > :06:03.unlike anything they'd seen before. We got to the site and within
:06:03. > :06:09.seconds there was this large, oval gold piece just sat there on the
:06:09. > :06:12.surface and I thought gosh, it's real, isn't it? It was just coming
:06:12. > :06:16.out piece after piece and we were trying to record it as it was
:06:16. > :06:24.coming out of the ground. I think we soon realised that there was
:06:24. > :06:27.still a lot there that we needed to find. It's very different from the
:06:27. > :06:31.normal sort of archaeology that we do, the sort of humdrum looking for
:06:31. > :06:33.pits and for features just trying to tell the story of the past. You
:06:33. > :06:36.never really get involved with finds involving precious metals.
:06:36. > :06:39.This is real Indiana Jones type stuff. Suddenly we had over 1,500
:06:39. > :06:47.new clues into our Dark Age past. Pommels from the tops of swords,
:06:47. > :06:51.pieces of warrior helmet, strange serpents and mangled crosses. This
:06:51. > :07:01.was a Boy's Own collection of warrior bling found in the heart of
:07:01. > :07:01.
:07:01. > :07:09.the Midlands. And it captured the imagination of the world. You think
:07:09. > :07:14.that metal detector is no use any more?... The biggest haul of Anglo-
:07:14. > :07:20.Saxon gold ever found. I never thought I would hold this kind of
:07:20. > :07:25.treasure in my career. It is something you dream of. The fact we
:07:25. > :07:29.have made the item on the Six o'clock News meant that things were
:07:29. > :07:33.going to be big. It is the Earth yielding up its treasure. It
:07:34. > :07:43.literally came from the soil in Staffordshire, deliberately put
:07:44. > :07:44.
:07:44. > :07:47.there, it was not moved from that until 15 hundred years later.
:07:47. > :07:57.ARCHIVE: The biggest hoard of Anglo-Saxon gold ever discovered
:07:57. > :08:00.
:08:00. > :08:03.has been found in a field in Staffordshire.
:08:03. > :08:09.It wasn't just the press whose appetite was insatiable, the public
:08:09. > :08:13.were hungry to find out more about the incredible hoard.
:08:13. > :08:19.It is outstanding, the quality and quantity. I am very impressed. Her
:08:19. > :08:25.absolutely fantastic. It has not disappointed one little bit. It is
:08:25. > :08:32.quite a thrill to have a look at it. People were waiting for four hours
:08:32. > :08:42.at its peak. To get 4,000 people through a gallery in one day is
:08:42. > :08:43.
:08:43. > :08:46.unequalled here. It is astonishing. The hoard was huge, and packed with
:08:46. > :08:51.beautifully crafted artifacts from one of the darkest parts of the
:08:51. > :08:54.Dark Ages. But what did it actually tell us? Can one lucky find really
:08:54. > :08:57.revolutionise our thinking of Anglo-Saxon England? And is it so
:08:57. > :09:01.significant that our history of the Dark Age Midlands will now have to
:09:01. > :09:05.be completely rewritten? To find out I'm going to travel across what
:09:05. > :09:09.was once the Kingdom of Mercia to see if the hoard really lives up
:09:09. > :09:13.the hype. I'm starting my journey here in
:09:13. > :09:17.Tamworth. We know that in the mid- 7th century, right at the time of
:09:17. > :09:22.the hoard, this area was a centre of power for the Dark Age kings of
:09:22. > :09:26.Mercia. After roaming the lands trying to expand their kingdom or
:09:26. > :09:28.fight off the threat of invasion, it was here they'd come back to, a
:09:28. > :09:32.place where treaties were signed and tributes of gold and riches
:09:32. > :09:42.paid out to the king's loyal warriors. And Tamworth Castle
:09:42. > :09:49.
:09:49. > :09:52.stands on what was the heart of Even before the hoard was found,
:09:52. > :10:02.historians thought they had a pretty good idea of the importance
:10:02. > :10:04.
:10:04. > :10:10.of Tamworth, and the kind of people who lived here. The Royal Court was
:10:10. > :10:13.a Borrie a band. -- a warrior band. The warrior elite surrounding the
:10:13. > :10:17.king lived and died with him. He succeeds, they got pots of gold,
:10:17. > :10:22.pots of land, lots of women, lots of nice horses and life was great.
:10:22. > :10:25.If the king failed, they died horribly.
:10:25. > :10:33.Well, actually if we come out onto the tower you get a fantastic sense
:10:33. > :10:42.of the setting. And why it was such a special place. It is gorgeous.
:10:42. > :10:44.Stunning, yes. you can see the castle is a very strategic point.
:10:44. > :10:48.Marion Blockley is an archaeologist and an expert in Anglo-Saxon
:10:48. > :10:58.history. For her, the hoard is further proof of the wealth and the
:10:58. > :11:00.
:11:00. > :11:06.So this is a major British royal settlement? Absolutely. I have
:11:06. > :11:10.worked in Canberra -- Canterbury, York, and many other places and it
:11:10. > :11:15.tends to feel neglected but it was exceptionally significant. More
:11:15. > :11:21.charters were signed here at important times will be like
:11:21. > :11:25.Christmas and Easter, the Royal Court travelled around and Tamworth
:11:25. > :11:27.was the place to be. The hoard was discovered just a few
:11:27. > :11:30.miles from where we're standing, and for Marion it might just
:11:30. > :11:38.provide proof of a very specific event in the 7th century Midlands.
:11:38. > :11:46.Do you have any ideas how it might have got there? Nearby was a famous
:11:46. > :11:53.battle. It is possible as the people who were involved run away,
:11:53. > :12:00.they may have buried it. But they were killed. That is tantalising.
:12:01. > :12:04.Walk what record do we have of it? There is a lament of it. Before
:12:04. > :12:10.this they triumph. There was blood beneath the ravens and fierce
:12:10. > :12:17.attack. Glory in battle, great plunder. Before the King, the other
:12:17. > :12:21.King took it. And that is really rather wonderful. To think that
:12:21. > :12:26.might be the history of the Staffordshire Hoard, that is quite
:12:26. > :12:29.exciting. It may well be. This could be a rare, teasing moment of
:12:29. > :12:32.clarity in a very murky history. The trouble is that this poem was
:12:32. > :12:36.written around 200 years later than we can date anything in the hoard.
:12:36. > :12:41.And battles like this weren't exactly rare. Turf wars were an
:12:41. > :12:44.everyday feature of Anglo-Saxon life. We can understand it now I
:12:44. > :12:48.think better than it's ever been possible since because we have
:12:48. > :12:52.gangland culture back in Britain. It's gang warfare and what happens
:12:52. > :13:00.is when you take over the territory of a rival gang, the lot get bumped
:13:01. > :13:04.off, usually in extraordinarily So claiming the hoard is proof of
:13:04. > :13:07.one particular battle might be pushing it. But put it together
:13:07. > :13:10.with other Anglo-Saxon evidence from across Britain and its some of
:13:10. > :13:20.the clearest evidence yet that, even in the 7th century, Mercia was
:13:20. > :13:24.
:13:24. > :13:27.a wealthy, powerful and expanding Mercian kings at this moment were
:13:27. > :13:30.the winners. So you see little kingdoms to the west, bigger
:13:30. > :13:33.kingdoms to the east are sucked and absorbed. First of all you roll
:13:33. > :13:35.Northumbria back, then you take over lands towards Wales and the
:13:35. > :13:38.Welsh Marches, then of course the Mercians absorb Kent, they absorb
:13:38. > :13:48.London, they swing over into East Anglia, so you're creating this
:13:48. > :13:49.
:13:49. > :13:51.By the 8th or 9th century, Mercia is certainly the largest kingdom
:13:51. > :14:01.geographically, it covers the largest portion of the British
:14:01. > :14:07.
:14:07. > :14:10.But what about the warriors who carved out this vast kingdom? What
:14:10. > :14:18.does the hoard tell us about them? And so those are pommels from the
:14:18. > :14:22.sword are they? Yes, they are highly decorative, and that is a
:14:22. > :14:26.different sort of pommel. There are more than 90 of these. I could not
:14:26. > :14:31.believe it. I spent 30 years digging Anglo-Saxon side sticking
:14:31. > :14:35.up a few of these objects and to seek them, my jaw dropped,
:14:35. > :14:38.literally. This quantity is quite remarkable. Until now only a
:14:38. > :14:41.handful of pommel caps have ever been found anywhere in Britain.
:14:41. > :14:49.Finding 94 in one place suggests the Mercians were the unrivalled
:14:49. > :14:59.But it's not just the number of pommel caps that's important, it's
:14:59. > :15:01.the way they're decorated and what they're decorated with. What we may
:15:01. > :15:08.have here is, these elements of decoration, are the personalisation
:15:08. > :15:13.of a sword. The blade would be passed between warriors. These
:15:13. > :15:21.Garnetts. They probably came from India and Sri Lanka. We can do
:15:22. > :15:28.research on them. Large garnets came from India and Sri Lanka. They
:15:28. > :15:32.then came from places like Bohemia and Portugal. You are looking at a
:15:32. > :15:37.remarkable, international trade in this stuff. Globalisation?
:15:38. > :15:40.Globalisation. These garnets are real evidence that, far from being
:15:40. > :15:43.the insular island race, Anglo- Saxons were actually connected to
:15:43. > :15:46.trade routes all over the world. And, it seems, when the warriors
:15:46. > :15:52.got hold of these precious stones, they placed them on the items most
:15:52. > :16:00.precious to them, their weapons. Their sword was their battle friend.
:16:00. > :16:05.They gave names to their swords. We know about Excalibur. My favourite
:16:05. > :16:10.sort, Excalibur. These swords were symbolic of the power of a great
:16:10. > :16:19.warrior. Absolutely exquisite, a work of art on a weapon for killing
:16:19. > :16:22.So the hoard is positive proof of the power of Mercia. It tells us
:16:22. > :16:26.how rich they were, that they were involved in global trade and that
:16:26. > :16:36.they liked a good fight. But can the hoard go one step further and
:16:36. > :16:36.
:16:36. > :16:40.connect us to the most famous of Oh, I want it to be, we all want it
:16:40. > :16:43.to be Penda, who is the famous king of Mercia, the warrior. Penda is
:16:43. > :16:45.the king in the early 7th century of Mercia and he's fighting a huge
:16:45. > :16:52.programme of expansion against Northumbria which had adopted
:16:52. > :17:02.Christianity quite early and to begin with was immensely successful.
:17:02. > :17:05.He defeats and unpleasantly disposes of two Northumbrian kings.
:17:06. > :17:13.Presumably in ritual sacrifice. It would be lovely if this is the
:17:13. > :17:18.The timing might well be right. Penda was a mighty overlord who led
:17:18. > :17:24.Mercia's early expansion. Vicious even by the standards of the Dark
:17:24. > :17:27.Ages, he killed two kings and banished another. But we know
:17:27. > :17:30.little else about him, as the only surviving history was written by a
:17:30. > :17:35.Northumbrian monk called Bede. hates Penda because he defeats and
:17:35. > :17:43.does horrible things to Northumbrian kings. And also of
:17:43. > :17:49.course he's the wrong side - he's a pagan. Bede is a great historian
:17:49. > :17:52.that they are not usually impartial. He is writing for a purpose. Penda
:17:52. > :17:55.really doesn't get the recognition that he deserves in the texts,
:17:55. > :17:58.because most of the history at this point is written down by the
:17:58. > :18:07.Venerable Bede. He's a Northumbrian and a Christian and therefore an
:18:07. > :18:11.enemy of this pagan Mercian king, The hoard has yet to give us any
:18:11. > :18:14.direct evidence of Penda. But that's not to say the two aren't
:18:14. > :18:18.linked. Penda was the one king who held out, while everyone around him
:18:18. > :18:27.was converting to Christianity. In 655, when he died fighting against
:18:27. > :18:33.his enemies, Christianity consumed The conversion of this last kingdom
:18:33. > :18:35.to Christianity would mark the beginning of a new era for England.
:18:35. > :18:38.And what was discovered in the Staffordshire Hoard has helped
:18:38. > :18:48.shine a light into exactly how and when this religious transformation
:18:48. > :18:49.
:18:49. > :18:53.The conversion to Christianity changed the whole fabric of our
:18:53. > :18:55.society, bringing with it the written word and the rule of law.
:18:55. > :19:05.But, despite its importance to British history, no-one knows
:19:05. > :19:08.exactly how or when it came about. Lichfield has been an important
:19:08. > :19:10.religious centre since the early Christian days of Mercia. And this
:19:10. > :19:17.book is the earliest documentary evidence of the religion in the
:19:17. > :19:24.Midlands. This is the cathedral's greatest
:19:24. > :19:32.treasure and we call it the St Chad Gospels. We think it was created to
:19:32. > :19:36.a joke -- to adorn St Chad's shrine, he died in 672. This book is
:19:36. > :19:40.associated with this building for around 1,300 years? Something like
:19:40. > :19:43.that. The gospel and the hoard date from around the same time, a
:19:43. > :19:47.crucial turning point in the religious history of Britain and in
:19:47. > :19:51.the hoard are a mixture of pagan and Christian symbols. So were the
:19:51. > :19:53.Mercians Christian converts or the last of the pagans? Or could the
:19:53. > :20:03.crumpled crosses and Latin inscriptions be the looted
:20:03. > :20:09.
:20:09. > :20:13.possessions of another defeated Christian enemy? My hunch is that
:20:13. > :20:18.the Staffordshire Hoard gives us a last glimpse of pagan Mercia and
:20:18. > :20:23.the book gives us a last that of -- a first glimpse of Christiane
:20:23. > :20:32.immiscible. These are part of the same cultural family, the
:20:32. > :20:38.interlacing and the zoo are more fake creatures in the depicted.
:20:38. > :20:45.Lots of animals depicted in the hoard. Wonderful. We know it was
:20:46. > :20:50.not uncommon for monks and bishops to be on the battlefield. Not
:20:50. > :20:57.necessarily as combatants, more likely as non-combatants. But
:20:57. > :21:02.bringing with them, as it were, the power in which their army believed.
:21:02. > :21:07.Interesting, this is a quote on here which actually refers to
:21:07. > :21:15.military activity. Yes, a Latin text from the Bible, from the Book
:21:15. > :21:21.of Numbers. And the translation of the text is "a rise, O'Gaunt, and
:21:21. > :21:27.that your animist be scattered, but those who hate you flee before you.
:21:27. > :21:36.-- let your enemies be scattered.". Your pagan neighbour might want to
:21:36. > :21:40.inscribe exactly that text on to a cross to lead the Christian
:21:40. > :21:45.warriors into battle. It is a personal peace. You can imagine
:21:45. > :21:49.somebody clutching it into battle. Yes, you can. And the fact it ends
:21:49. > :21:54.up in a hole in the middle of mercy Bob, you wonder what else went
:21:54. > :22:02.inside. You have got to feel that the owner was on the losing side
:22:02. > :22:05.that day. Here the hoard throws up more questions than it answers.
:22:05. > :22:08.This was a religious turning point, but whose? And rather than being
:22:08. > :22:11.the last pagans in a largely Christian world, were the Mercians
:22:11. > :22:15.actually a bit of both, subscribing to two religions at the same time,
:22:15. > :22:18.just to make sure? I think we find in a number of Anglo-Saxon objects
:22:18. > :22:22.this idea of hedging your bets, that we are talking about a
:22:22. > :22:24.transitional moment. A spiritual transitional moment, but also a
:22:24. > :22:27.cultural transitional moment, where they're moving from this Germanic
:22:27. > :22:30.pagan past into this more sort of continentally influenced Christian
:22:30. > :22:33.moment and the movement between the two is not going to be immediate.
:22:33. > :22:36.So you have the protective talisman of the processional cross, that
:22:36. > :22:38.idea of carrying Christ into battle, being protected by Him. And then
:22:38. > :22:48.you have these talismans, these serpents, these traditional Anglo-
:22:48. > :23:02.
:23:03. > :23:06.Saxon battle beasts. This is not peaceful, this is quite the
:23:06. > :23:08.opposite. This is the church militant, the church warlike. Of
:23:08. > :23:11.course, Christianity adapting itself to context. If you try and
:23:11. > :23:18.implant Christianity in a warrior culture, it's got to assume the
:23:18. > :23:20.elements of a warrior culture. So here you have war-like pagans
:23:20. > :23:23.fighting war-like Christians. shouldn't underestimate just how
:23:23. > :23:24.important the hoard is, when it comes to telling the story of
:23:24. > :23:32.Britain's conversion to Christianity. But the revelations
:23:32. > :23:37.For years we'd found basic pottery that made many of us assume that
:23:37. > :23:47.our Dark Age ancestors lacked both skill and sophistication. But the
:23:47. > :23:49.
:23:50. > :23:53.exquisite jewelry in the hoard At Birmingham Museum they are using
:23:53. > :24:02.state of the art equipment to give us a window onto this never before
:24:02. > :24:05.seen world. He see in more detail. We are seeing this in greater
:24:06. > :24:12.detail than the person who owned it ever saw it. It is phenomenal. You
:24:12. > :24:17.have got carefully cut Garnetts, laid into intricate cells, each
:24:17. > :24:23.stone carefully shaped and stones that are tricky materials to work.
:24:23. > :24:31.Garnett is not a particularly rare stone but it cannot be just sheered
:24:31. > :24:36.off late. If you want it then, you have got to cut them thin. They
:24:36. > :24:39.have got to be cut to these special shapes and they have got to be
:24:39. > :24:47.perfect. There's the animal's head with two
:24:47. > :24:51.little ring-like eyes. Harder they cut the shape to fit perfectly
:24:51. > :24:56.within the gold? It is incredibly intricate. It is mind-blowing. The
:24:56. > :25:00.more you look at it, the more incredibly complicated and
:25:00. > :25:05.beautiful it is. What the hoard has laid bare here is a rich ruling
:25:05. > :25:07.class. These weren't ignorant savages. They were people with
:25:07. > :25:13.incredible wealth and skill who prized great beauty. The thing that
:25:14. > :25:18.strikes you as you look at them is twofold apart from the engineering.
:25:18. > :25:21.It's first of all the amazing linear sense, it's like Art Deco.
:25:21. > :25:24.You also have a craftsmanship in terms of the matching of gold and
:25:24. > :25:34.jewels, which I think you've got to get to Faberge before you've
:25:34. > :25:36.
:25:36. > :25:39.They were the entertaining artwork of these people. They would spend a
:25:39. > :25:42.lot of time in the company of their weaponry and so meditating and
:25:42. > :25:45.ruminating on the imagery and how this worked and how one beast
:25:45. > :25:55.begins and another ends, that's part of the beauty of them for
:25:55. > :25:55.
:25:55. > :25:59.their original audience as well. suppose the plain truth is, isn't
:25:59. > :26:03.it really that after all the Anglo- Saxons are German so this is the
:26:03. > :26:10.origin. It's sort of a BMW-style engineering which we unfortunately
:26:10. > :26:13.have grown out of but they still The exquisite designs and
:26:13. > :26:23.craftsmanship displayed in the hoard have shed new light on the
:26:23. > :26:25.
:26:25. > :26:31.skill and sophistication of our Under each stone you have got a
:26:31. > :26:38.piece of war for patterned gold foil, to scatter the light back --
:26:38. > :26:43.a pattern like a waffle. Just like on a reflector in a motor-car.
:26:43. > :26:48.you get the measurements on the screen, each one of those is about
:26:48. > :26:56.0.03 of a millimetre across. It is incredible. Something like this
:26:56. > :27:02.could have been warned by a Royal to, like the mercy in King. Or one
:27:02. > :27:09.of the people who sent into the next world, this is material that
:27:09. > :27:16.belongs to the losers and this could have been taken from Oswald
:27:16. > :27:19.of Northumbria or the king of Kent. We do not know, it is dangerous to
:27:19. > :27:23.try to ascribe the names to material like this but it is great
:27:23. > :27:26.fun! As I've travelled across the old Kingdom of Mercia, it's become
:27:26. > :27:31.clear to me just how important the discovery of the hoard really has
:27:31. > :27:33.been. It's shone a light into the Midlands of the Dark Ages,
:27:33. > :27:37.revealing a powerful, wealthy and sophisticated people, who were a
:27:37. > :27:40.force to be reckoned with in the Anglo-Saxon world. And in an
:27:40. > :27:49.amazing stroke of luck, it's also captured a moment, a turning point
:27:49. > :27:57.in our history, when Britain became The discovery of the Staffordshire
:27:57. > :27:59.Hoard is literally causing the But we've also found that this
:27:59. > :28:08.discovery raises many fresh questions. Questions that
:28:08. > :28:12.scientists and historians will There are many more surprises for
:28:12. > :28:22.the hoard yet to give up and what we think we now know may yet be
:28:22. > :28:46.