Metal detectorists uncover Saxon burial ground

[Deetektor]

Metal detectors uncover Saxon burial ground in 'find of a lifetime'

Two men have spoken of "the find of a lifetime" when they uncovered a Saxon
cemetery while metal detecting near Lewes.

From: 24Dash.com


""The site near Lewes has been protected as a scheduled monument
in recognition of its importance and to help preserve it in future."

Rightly so

[tomredmayne]

This is a fantastic story, and one that I am very priviliged to have had some detail on already as one of the detectorists involved is our own coldstream-02. He and his mate have shown fantastic self-control in keeping this story secret since October last year and must be praised in their actions throughout in reporting the find and working with the archaeologists to reveal such a wonderful piece of our history.

In coldstream's own words yesterday to me, you can hear the excitement.......and rightly so.........

"I found a bronze bowl at around 2 feet deep and the my mate found his shield boss I then found the top of what turned out to be a female skull which was stained through the bowl deteriorating throught the centuries in all we excavated three graves 2 female 1 male and over 19 artefacts where recovered more of which hopefully will be revealed tomorrow at the press conference, we did everything in accordance with the FID code of conduct, so you can imagine that I have been sitting here watching the debates about archaeologists and detectorists and I have been dying to throw my two pennys worth in, but couldnt."

"To start tomorrow we are doing a live interview at 7.40 with Sussex counties radio and then at 10.00 am a press release at Lewes with the BBC and Meridian News attending"

What a superb promotion of our hobby and the way that our two disciplines can work together..............................

The find of a lifetime and huge congratulations to both Cliff and Bob.................

[tomredmayne]

Just listened to them both on Sussex radio online....................fantastic interview and promoted the hobby really well..............well done guys................

You can listen again to them here Click Here on Sussex Breakfast. Click on the Sussex Breakfast link and move the slider to 42 minutes into the programme..........

[anonymous]

Very well done.

[stanleyman]

the other detectorist was me stanleyman we have now finished the interviews and it should be on bbc news and meridian tv tonight if you want to take a look we think we have come across promoting our hobby as best we can i hope it comes out the way it was told we welcome any feedback

[tomredmayne]

More links to the story............

Click Here

Click Here

Click Here

[coldstream-02]

Hi everyone, I would just like to update something that shows on one of the links that Tomredmayne posted for me and stanleyman. The second Link is a link to our local paper The Evening Argus, where they call us Treasure Hunters, Ok each to their own if you dont mind being called a treasure hunter then good for you, personally I object as I think it portays me in the same way as a night hawker, and I do not (nor does stanleyman) want to be seen in this context. So I rang them last night and Emailed one of the reporters with my objections and our County Archaeologist also objected strongly to us being referred to as "Treasure Hunters", so eventually they did change it, but this is not reflected on their website. For those of you who are interested in what they changed it to, it read; Detectors find grisly artefacts.
I don't think they liked me telling them how much damage they were going to cause amongst us and the archaeologists and also English Heritage. So I think this was their way of saying ok read something into that, so I have, my machine is a detector , I am a detectorist!!! Also my machine did not find anything grisly, it actually found some beautiful metallic artefacts, which along with the skeletal remains will provide not just the archaeologists and historians with new and exciting information but also (hopefully) an insight into our ancestors day to day lives. A massive Thanks to Tomredmayne for releasing our story with such expertise and kind words and big to my tecting mate Bob (aka stanleyman). We will be posting photos as and when we can. Best wishes coldstream-02.

[Puffin]

Hi everyone, I would just like to update something that shows on one of the links that Tomredmayne posted for me and stanleyman. The second Link is a link to our local paper The Evening Argus, where they call us Treasure Hunters, Ok each to their own if you dont mind being called a treasure hunter then good for you, personally I object as I think it portays me in the same way as a night hawker, and I do not (nor does stanleyman) want to be seen in this context. So I rang them last night and Emailed one of the reporters with my objections and our County Archaeologist also objected strongly to us being referred to as "Treasure Hunters", so eventually they did change it, but this is not reflected on their website. For those of you who are interested in what they changed it to, it read; Detectors find grisly artefacts.
I don't think they liked me telling them how much damage they were going to cause amongst us and the archaeologists and also English Heritage. So I think this was their way of saying ok read something into that, so I have, my machine is a detector , I am a detectorist!!! Also my machine did not find anything grisly, it actually found some beautiful metallic artefacts, which along with the skeletal remains will provide not just the archaeologists and historians with new and exciting information but also (hopefully) an insight into our ancestors day to day lives. A massive Thanks to Tomredmayne for releasing our story with such expertise and kind words and big to my tecting mate Bob (aka stanleyman). We will be posting photos as and when we can. Best wishes coldstream-02.

Very well said Mate, I too don't like the tag that the popular press give us. Brilliant find and good on you both for the way you have handled it.

[coldstream-02]

Cheers Puffin, this is just the start of the story I hope both stanleyman and myself have done us all proud.

[Deetektor]

There was a good piece on South East Today (BBC TV) this evening.

Well done chaps.

[coldstream-02]

Been looking for something to verify our story , didn't see that Deetektor, can you elaborate at all? And Thanks for introducing the story at top of page Youve obviously got your eye on the ball!

[Donnydave]

Well done you two looking forward to the pics and feel very proud for you both

[Deetektor]

Deetektor, can you elaborate at all?

It was a longish piece on the TV. Showed you out in the field, saying how you made
the find.then in the musueum looking at the skeleton. Then back out on the field
pretending to detect and talking about how you felt in making the find.

It came over well

[coldstream-02]

Thanks for the comment Donnydave, and again to you Deetektor, we are glad you think it came over well (apart from the obvious pretend detecting ) as I live in Brighton I was watching BBC South today, so didnt see it, maybe I can view it online. Many Thanks to both of you

[stanleyman]

thanks for all the nice coments and how did you know we were only pretending to detect was it the lack of headphones or the no spade that gave it away we did feel like two idiots but no farmers wanted the tv all over there farms as if some one wanted to go out looking they might of thought the farm we were on was where we found it so off to the park it was still we got council blessing to do it there so it is looking better for all of us detectorists coldstream and myself have been longing for the relese so we could talk about our find with out worrying if we said the wrong thing still it is out there now so if we can find it you can to just get out there and detect good luck all