One of the most curious coins in the British Museum’s Anglo-Saxon collection is a small (20mm diameter) gold coin found in Rome in the 19th century, weighing 4.3g, and which carries the inscription OFFA REX on one side. In all other respects it is clearly a copy of a dinar minted by the Abbasid caliph. 
It is also clear that the Mercian die-cutter did not recognise the patterns on the coin he was copying to be a form of writing, much less understand it, perhaps thinking it was merely decorative, as the coin bears the inscription “ There is no God but Allah alone without equal, and Muhammad is the Apostle of Allah ” albeit with a number of mistakes. It also features the date of issue of the coin being copied -ah 157 or 773-4 CE - in the very middle of Offa’s reign, suggesting the parent coin itself was surprisingly new when it was plagiarised.

​This coin is often speculatively connected to the a ‘Peter’s Pence’ levy of 365 gold coins which Offa collected and paid annually to the Pope, from 796 CE (Williams, 2008). This levy was known as the ‘Rome-scot’ - the latter part deriving from the Old English name for a different coin (the small thick early Anglo-Saxon silver ‘sceat’). It’s tempting to imagine the bewilderment of the pontiff receiving 365 such coins from a Christian king each bearing ‘the shahada’ (the Islamic Declaration of Faith), but in fact, the dinar on which they were based would have been very familiar in Rome, where all manner of high-value solid gold coins collided....

Netflix’ “The Dig” has left the world abuzz with excitement about the amazing discoveries made at Sutton Hoo, and particularly the time and “lost” civilization they represents. Of course we were obsessed with the “Anglo-Saxons” long before it was cool – that diverse, swirling mix of ancient Britons and new arrivals to our shores who grew new identities and kingdoms from the decay of post-Roman Britain, made spectacular and vibrant art built on global networks of trade, laid down the foundations for the English language, literature and common law, and shepherded this rain-soaked and fractured isle on the edge of the world, to a well organised and influential state, centre of learning and culture at the heart of medieval Europe. The amazing treasures of the king’s burial at Sutton Hoo represent an early moment in this story – the pivotal 6th-7th century – when ambitious new kingdoms were just beginning to emerge, and after a period of relative isolation, were increasingly reconnecting with the world beyond. The treasures themselves illustrate this well, with goods from Scandinavia to the Middle East, materials from as far away as India, and with artwork representing a complex dance between multiple influences, identities and beliefs.

The unfolding of the story of this lost culture didn’t end in 1939 though; since then, many more wonderful treasures have been found, and older ones have been re-discovered. Here are some more treasures from Britain from the time of Sutton Hoo you might not have heard of, in no particular order, and, where you can see them.

antiquity or early medieval period would have had, and are keen to point out how wrong we are, for our variously either “too modern” or “too clichéd” haircuts. Such criticism raises two questions;  What do we really know about the hairstyles of nominally “Anglo-Saxon” and “Viking” period peoples?    What is our group’s authenticity policy with respect to this issue?
In this article we hope to address both questions with respect to male hairstyle and grooming, with a further article on womens’ hair and head-wear to follow. 
(Originally published in October 2019)