A Wonderful Celtic Hoard

After my last Celtic finds account (Figs.1-2), that was featured in Treasure Hunting magazine’s News and Views (May 2018 issue) I’m pleased to announce that there is even more to tell.

- Mike Smith

As you can no doubt imagine, I was absolutely amazed at finding the beautiful Celtic bridle fitting featured in that account and just couldn’t wait to return to the field. Especially as I had just purchased a Minelab X-Terra 705 (Fig.3) and wanted to test this beast on a site with clearly so much potential. After making such a find you’ve simply no option but to go back and check, although I wasn’t expecting to unearth anything else.

So just three days later I was standing on the edge of the field again, setting up the new machine. I headed straight over to the previous find spot – and even as I write this, I simply can’t believe my luck! I searched the area from where the bridle fitting had been unearthed and got another signal which turned out to be the top section of what appeared to be a Roman brooch or possibly a handle from a Celtic tankard (Fig.4)? Then I had another positive signal, this time much sharper and defined, so I dug down about 18 inches and recovered something which was clearly broken, but gloriously green! I carefully brushed away some of the soil and once again I was holding another artefact that had a mass of rich red coloured enamel cells all over its surface. I was shaking with excitement and thought to myself “Oh my god, this is decorated just like the bridle.” I swept the coil over the hole and the pile of excavated soil and located more targets, each one being a similar looking piece. I recovered everything until whatever I had found looked to be complete (Fig.5).