One thing about Europe that I am very jealous of is its age. Castles and ruins and old churches, from the middle ages to the Roman era and beyond. You can’t find any of that in the United States, which was only settled a few hundred years ago. The U.S. is like a baby compared to its older brother Europe.
Greater age means older relics – and more relics – to find. Sure, every once in a while in America someone will stumble upon some impressive discovery of a stash of coins from the eighteen hundreds or old wartime relics buried in battlefields. But Europe’s rich history over thousands of years of occupancy has created so much culture and so many diverse stories, all waiting to be told through a relic lifted from the ground. Not just two hundred-year old coins and old belt buckles from the U.S. Civil War, but things like ancient Roman coins and relics from biblical times!
Imagine living on a piece of land that has been occupied for thousands of years! For all you know, if you live in Europe, your house could be sitting on an ancient burial ground from the Black Death or the site of an old Renaissance era house that burned down. Here in the U.S., I’d be happy finding an old wartime souvenir or a coin from the 1800’s, because I know the U.S. hasn’t had all that much time to gather enough history to provide a ton artifacts than those few hundred years. (Granted, I know there’s history from the Native Americans, but in the long run, I believe Europe still provides a more diverse and historic treasure trove.)
Let’s look at some of the things people have found in the last several decades in the old land of Europe.
<—- Anglo-Saxon gold, from war items to crosses and a strip of engraved gold with a biblical inscription on it (pictured at left) were all found by a metal detector hobbyist in Staffordshire, England. In 2009, this man, Terry Herbert, went metal detecting in a field and found and excavated over 500 artifacts before contacting professionals, who then excavated another 800 pieces. This is said to be one of the best archaeological Anglo-Saxon finds ever, with its contents dating all the way from the 7th century. Go find that in America.
Talk about luck! At only 3 years old, James Hyatt dug up an amazing treasure in Hockley, Essex, ——-> England. After only a few minutes of holding the metal detector in the field, as James recalls, “I was holding the detector and it went beep, beep, beep. Then we dug into the mud. There was gold there. We didn’t have a map – only pirates have treasure maps.” How insanely adorable is this equally insanely lucky kid? It is believed that what they found is a reliquary (a locket holding a religious relic) dating back to the 16th century, around the time of Henry VIII.
Well, I’ve run out of room… but if you want to see more insane treasures found by ordinary people in Europe (… well it seems I’ve focused on Britain) then check out this article which talks about another discovery of ancient Celtic silver coins found in England and has a list of several other significant finds!
Works Cited:
http://www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/europe/09/24/staffordshire.uk.gold.hoard/
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/jersey-metal-detector-treasure-hunters-941566
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1330198/James-Hyatt-unearths-2-5m-treasure-trove-FIRST-metal-detecting-expedition.html