An object uncovered by archaeologists in Norfolk, England, is “completely unlike” anything else ever discovered, experts said Monday.
The tiny 19.4 mm (o.7 inch) object is a gilded silver relic, adorned with intricate designs appearing to show an animal looking over its shoulder, according to The Telegraph. The piece is believed to be at least 1,200 years old and archaeologists reportedly can’t determine the purpose of the mysterious object.
Detectorists found the piece in a crumpled condition, but it appears to be a round object with shallow sides, making it somewhat dish-shaped. “It was made by someone with a real eye for loveliness,” Dr. Helen Geake, an expert on the television show “Time Team,” told the BBC. “It’s so tiny and yet it was created just as carefully as something like a Bible or piece of jewelry.”
Mysterious Anglo-Saxon object ‘made by someone with a real eye for loveliness’ is discovered in Norfolk – and experts have no idea what it is https://t.co/QaBqJKR17p pic.twitter.com/0uyhQFhmJX
— Daily Mail Online (@MailOnline) January 2, 2024
It’s easy to agree with Geake’s assumption. I think it’s always best to go for the Occam’s Razor approach in situations like this: The piece was probably a piece of decorative jewelry used at the time. But the coolest thing is that archaeologists believe the design and development of the piece required gold and mercury imported from Spain at the time, which probably incurred a huge expense. (RELATED: New Discovery At Stonehenge Starts To Rewrite Centuries-Old Theory)
Just over a thousand years later, no one remembers the object or the person who owned it. And no one will remember the stuff you once owned during your time on Earth either, so stop buying things you don’t need.