Codename: Ainsbrook
A Time Team Special
First screened 14 January 2008

The Ainsbrook hoard

The initial assessment that the 'Ainsbrook hoard' might be connected with a Viking boat burial turned out to be incorrect; and hence the initial press reports that it was 'one of the most important Viking discoveries ever made in the British Isles' turned out to be exaggerated. The items found by metal detectorists Mark Ainsley and Geoffrey Bambrook, however, still comprise a significant and exciting assemblage.

The idea that the hoard might come from a boat burial arose from the fact that a large number of iron rivets, apparently similar to those used in Viking boat construction, were found with it. Their distribution in the ground also appeared to be consistent with the shape of a boat. When British Museum expert Lesley Webster examined the finds, however, she said that the rivets were not from a boat – although she thought they could be from a coffin. She also said that the other items found looked like they could be the personal possessions from a burial.

In all, about 130 items were uncovered by Mark and Geoff on this spot, Many of the smaller items were probably contained in a pouch of some sort, which would have rotted away in the very acid soil over the years together with any other organic material.

Mark made the first discoveries: three Saxon coins, which he found in quick succession on or just beneath the surface of the heavily ploughed soil. The other artefacts include the remains of two swords ('exceptionally rare' if they are from a grave, according to Lesley Webster); an Irish-type ringed pin for a cloak, a common find in Viking burials; a buckle and tongued strap end similar to others dating from the end of the 9th century; and the collection of small items that could have come from a pouch.

These small items include a number of objects indicating that their owner was a trader. As well as a variety of coins, he also possessed a number of small silver ingots that would have been used as bullion for trade, scales, round lead weights and four dice weights.

Among the coins were a number of silver pennies, all dating from the late 9th century, and part of a silver dirham coin from Baghdad. Three coins with holes pierced through the centre were minted by King Bergred of Mercia (852-874). These are of particular interest because five types of coins are known from Bergred's reign but Mark and Geoff contend that these three are different and could be a completely new type.

Despite the extensive survey and excavation of the site carried out by Richard Hall's archaeological team and funded by English Heritage, the hoard remains something of a mystery, however. A four-week, large-scale geophysics survey identified a large ditch around the site with what looks like an entrance. Various pits and other features were also scattered all over site.

But little of this could be tied in to the finds from Mark and Geoff's extensive metal detecting on the site over many years, and none of it appears to relate to Viking activity. Indeed, a pair of book clasps and a bell were the only identifiable Viking artefacts found on the site during the archaeological excavations.

According to Richard Hall, 'Apart from the hoard, there is no evidence for Vikings on the site, and there is no other evidence of Viking activity, certainly not occupation or structures.' Why the 'Ainsbrook hoard' was there and what was the site's connection to the Vikings is still undetermined.

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