LONDON – An amateur treasure hunter has discovered one of the most important Bronze Age finds ever found in Scotland, including jewelery and a 3,000-year-old sword, authorities said on Monday.
Metal detector Mariusz Stepien said he was “shaken with happiness” when he made the discovery in June, in a field near the village of Peebles, about 22 miles south of Edinburgh.
“I thought I had never seen such a thing before and from the beginning felt that this could be something spectacular and I have just discovered a great part of Scottish history,” he said.
Stepien and his friends made contact with the Scottish Government’s Treasure Trove unit and spent 22 days in the field when archaeologists discovered the composition of artifacts. These included a full horse hand, buckles, rings, ornaments, a sword still in its shake, and ashes of a chariot.
They, and the filth around them, are now in the National Museums Collection Center in Edinburgh.
Emily Freeman, head of the Treasure Trove Unit, said it was a nationally important find. ‘It is only the second Bronze Age well ever excavated in Scotland.
“It was a great opportunity for us to restore not only bronze artifacts but also organic material,” she said. “There is still a lot of work to be done to assess the artifacts and understand why they were dropped.”
