'A Very Significant Find'
By Alan Meek

Previous: 'Magical beyond belief'

The following Wednesday, Alan and Gil Burleigh had an appointment to take the treasures to the British Museum to be looked at by an expert.

Our appointment wasn't in the museum itself, but just around the corner from it. A voice from 'the buzzer-box' beside a very ordinary door, with a plaque saying, 'British Museum Department of Pre-History' on it, invited us in.

Ralph Jackson joined us and was introduced as the Curator of the Roman-British Collection. I was introduced by name, and as 'The Finder,' which I much enjoyed. Then it was sort of 'grown-up talk,' marvellously interesting to listen to and learn from, so I chose a chair, sat back, and did just that.

Gil unwrapped each piece, and lay it, on a little pad of paper, on a cleared space on one of the desks. As each item appeared - the figurine first, then the golden brooches and the silver hands, it was looked at, examined closely, compared with - related to - similar examples from memory, and sometimes from a book taken from a shelf, but rarely, I noticed, was any piece touched by hand.

Ralph Jackson was looking closely at one of the pendants - at the soil which encrusted much of it. 'There could be traces of something organic there- can you see -something woven, or maybe straw - could've been buried, just wrapped in cloth'. He stood up, said, 'how good that you did all the right things, so much more we can learn when we get things as they were found, like these.'

'Does that mean we get brownie points?' I asked - a newish situation for me, and I didn't mind milking it a bit. 'Lots of brownie points,' he said with a smile.

The gold sheets next, and then the 'diadem.' It is described in Gil's report as - 'Six gold votive plaques, decorated with deities and other designs.' Fair makes you drool, doesn't it? And then half a dozen or so, 'silvered copper plaques with figures.' Guesses as to which gods they might be, and would there be words too, were hazarded. But it was all going to take time; to clean - to conserve - to research - and there weren't a lot of people who could do all that at this level.

And that was about it. Except, as we stood at the top of the stairs, I asked a naive and amateurish question - but one which most detectorists will understand: 'On a scale of one to ten, in importance, just so I can tell people, where would you put this?' A head-shake. 'It isn't possible to categorize it like that - but I will say it is a very significant find.' And how often are you going to hear that in a lifetime?

Next: 'It's got to be a temple'