Hoard event is a night to treasure

THE Staffordshire Hoard could have been "blasted" away by crews building the M6 Toll road if the Government had chosen one of the other proposed routes for the motorway.

This was one of many fascinating snippets of information about the Anglo-Saxon treasure revealed at an exclusive talk last night.

It was organised for 100 lucky Sentinel readers and their guests and was held at Hanley's Potteries Museum and Art Gallery, where 118 of the gold pieces are currently being exhibited

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'King of Bling' protest over Essex road scheme resumes

"Camp Bling" campaigners in Southend-on-Sea, Essex have resumed their battle against a road scheme.

Protesters camped for five years on Priory Crescent opposing a £22m road-widening scheme on the burial site of Britain's earliest-known Saxon King.

He was dubbed the "King of Bling" after archaeologists found gold and treasure at the 8th Century site.

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Restoration starts at Wareham's ancient town walls

District council chiefs agreed to plough an additional £69,000 into the ongoing conservation project, and contractors moved onto the historic site to start clearance work. Dorset company Banyards Ltd started removing potentially damaging trees and shr-ubs from the area known as the Bowling Green.

Purbeck natural environment spokesman Cllr Andrew Starr said: “The restoration of this ancient monument will give the public a better appreciation of the magnificence of the historic town defences of Wareham, and will increase the opportunity for enjoyment for residents and visitors.”

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Anglo-Saxon and Viking Summer School Courses at Oxford

The Oxford Experience Summer School, which is held at Christ Church, Oxford offers over 50 different courses during the five weeks from 4 July to 7 August 2010.

These courses include:

The Golden Age of Anglo-Saxon England - 25 to 31 July 2010
(see further details)

King Alfred and the Vikings - 1 to 7 August
(see further details)

You can find out about other Summer School courses in archaeology and history at the University of Oxford’s website.

Anglo-Saxon Kent Electronic Database (ASKED)

ASKED, the Anglo-Saxon Kent Electronic Database was built collaboratively by Stuart Brookes and Sue Harrington to facilitate our respective PhD researches at UCL Institute of Archaeology, from 1998-2000. A pared down version of its content is presented here, in order for it to act as the pilot database for a much larger corpus of material currently being gathered under the aegis of the 'Beyond the Tribal Hidage Project' - a Leverhulme funded research project undertaken at UCL Institute of Archaeology by director Martin Welch and research assistant Sue Harrington. It is intended that this new dataset will be deposited with the Archaeology Data Service in late 2009, retaining the same format as this version of ASKED.

Further details...

Anglo-Saxon gold hoard returning to Staffordshire

Part of the Staffordshire Hoard, a selection of Anglo-Saxon artefacts found in a field in the county, is arriving at the Potteries Museum.

About 80 of the 1,500 artefacts are going on show at the Stoke-on-Trent museum at the weekend.

Campaigners hope to raise £3.3m to make sure the hoard remains in the West Midlands otherwise it could be bought by private collectors.

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'Gangland bling' of Beowulf era to go on show in Staffordshire

After 1,300 years in the ground and eight months on the road, biggest hoard of Anglo-Saxon gold returns to Potteries

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.

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Bristol University professor has a bone to pick with Saxon queen

It must have been a lonely journey, as the two young sisters travelled through the night leaving behind the land they called home, knowing they would never return.

The year is AD929, and Eadgyth and Eadgifu, two Saxon princesses – the granddaughters of Alfred The Great, and daughters of Edward the Elder – have been sent away from the Wessex kingdom of their childhood, which is now ruled by their powerful half-brother King Athelstan.

In the kind of ruthless diplomatic move that would give him a place in the history books as the first true king of all England, Athelstan has sent his half-sisters to Germany in the hope that Otto, Duke of Saxony, will choose one to be his wife

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Book your place at 'Portable Antiquities: Archaeology, Collecting, Metal Detecting' Conference

Registration is now open for the ‘Portable Antiquities: Archaeology, Collecting, Metal Detecting’ conference on 13th and 14th March 2010. This event is co-organised by the CBA and Newcastle University’s International Centre for Cultural and Heritage Studies, and takes place at Newcastle University and the Great North Museum: Hancock.

The papers at this conference offer perspectives from a range of different interest groups, look at recent research, present case studies from around the UK and beyond, and ultimately offer views about what the future may hold for portable antiquities management. Much debate is anticipated at this timely event.

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