One of the largest gold torcs ever discovered was stolen from the Ely Museum Tuesday. Thieves broke into the closed building in the wee hours on the morning of May 7th and stole the Bronze Age gold torc and a heavy gold bracelet from the same period. Only the two gold objects were taken. Both of the stolen artifacts were found by metal detectorists in East Cambridgeshire. The solid gold bracelet was discovered in 2011. The torc was discovered in a recently ploughed field in September 2015. The four-flange spiral twisted bar torc is more than 4’10” long from trumpet terminal to trumpet terminal and weighs 732 grams (1.6 pounds). It dates to around 1300-1100 B.C. Not only is it exceptional for its size and weight, but also for its purity. Analysis found it is composed of 86-87% gold and 12-13% silver, which makes it 20-21 carat gold by today’s standards. Dr Wilkin, who is responsible for the British Museum’s British and European Bronze Age Collection, described it as “one of the most important Bronze Age finds that’s ever been made in England”. He said the torc is the “largest of its type in the whole of Europe” and its diameter is “larger than any adult male trousers that you can buy in a shop today”. He speculated the torc could have been worn over bulky clothing or by a sacrificial animal but its use “remains a guessing game”. At this time in the Bronze Age, people were no longer being buried with important objects – instead they deposited them at “important places in the landscape”. Dr Wilkin said: “We don’t necessarily know why, but we think it was a gift to the gods, designed to secure good harvests or a healthy family. I’ve calculated you could probably make 10 smaller objects out of this one, so it’s a really big sacrifice of wealth and status.” The Ely Museum acquired the torc in September 2017. After it was determined to be treasure at a coroner’s inquest, the British Museum’s valuation committee assessed its fair market value at £220,000 ($275,000). Local museums are given first crack at raising the sum, and the Ely Museum secured grants, including a large one of £138,600 from the National Heritage Memorial Fund, and donations from the public to reach the goal. A month later, the torc was on display at the Ely Museum, the pride and joy of its permanent collection. Elie Hughes, curator at Ely Museum, said: “We are devastated by the loss to the museum and to the local heritage of the region. It is a huge blow after the incredible support from the community in acquiring the torc in 2017. As a culturally significant object, it cannot be replaced. Our priority now is working with the police to locate the stolen objects.” The museum is housed in Ely’s Old Gaol building since 1997.  The 700-year-old building was extensively redeveloped to improve access, display space and security in 2021, so it’s not like its systems are old junk. The break-in was just swift and targeted. The worst part of this is that the torc is obviously completely unsalable. It is far too famous and unique to be passed off on the sly, and the odds of this being a commissioned theft for an unscrupulous private collector are miniscule. The real danger is that the priceless archaeological artifacts will be melted down for their mere gold value. The Cambridgeshire Constabulary are investigating the crime. They are currently looking for two people who seen on e-scooters in the vicinity of the museum between midnight and 2:00 AM Tuesday. Anybody with information can contact the police by dialing 101 in the UK or through its online chat service.

A rare stone with an ancient ogham inscription was discovered by Coventry geography teacher while weeding his flowerbed. Graham Senior was digging up weeds and rocks in his garden on May 28th, 2020, when just four or five inches below the surface he encountered up a quasi-rectangular stone with parallel and diagonal incisions. He washed it and sent a photograph of the stone to an archaeologist relative of his who thought it worth reporting to the Portable Antiquities Scheme. The finds liaison officer sent photos to a University of Glasgow professor who confirmed that the markings were ogham script. Ogham is an early medieval alphabet used to write the Archaic Irish language from the 4th to the 6th century and Old Irish from the 6th to the 9th century. It was the first written language in Ireland and is typically found carved on stones in Ireland, Wales and western Britain. There are about 400 inscriptions from the Archaic Irish period known, and most of them are pillars with family names that were erected to broadcast ownership of land. The rock found in Coventry is a small rectangle of sandstone with rounded ends 110 mm (4.3 inches) long, 38 mm (1.5 inches) wide and 19 mm (.75 inches) wide. It is inscribed on three of the long sides in  early ogham. The inscription therefore dates to the 5th or 6th century, but may have been engraved as early as the 4th century. It translates to MALDUMCAIL / S / LASS. The first side is a version of the personal name Mael Dumcail, but the meaning of the S and LASS is unclear. Given the usual purpose and significance of ogham stones, it may be a location reference.     Teresa Gilmore, am archaeologist and finds liaison officer for Staffordshire and West Midlands based at Birmingham Museums, said : “This is an amazing find. The beauty of the Portable Antiquities Scheme is that people are finding stuff that keeps rewriting our history. “This particular find has given us a new insight into early medieval activity in Coventry, which we still need to make sense of. Each find like this helps in filling in our jigsaw puzzle and gives us a bit more information.” […] Gilmore said such stones were “very rare and have generally been found in Ireland or Scotland … so to find them in the Midlands is actually unusual.” She suggested it could be linked to people coming over from Ireland or to early medieval monasteries in the area. “You would have had monks and clerics moving between the different monasteries.” Senior has donated to the rock to the Herbert Art Gallery and Museum in Coventry where it will go on public display on Mary 11th in the new Collecting Coventry exhibition.

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