Those tales of buried treasure weren’t always just tales. Pirates buried loot, called by archaeologists hoards, for later retrieval all the time, as did wealthy merchants or aristocrats, or even craftsmen – founder’s hoards, with half-finished pieces of byproducts of their metalwork are not uncommon. Of most interest are of course the gold and silver hoards, and of those the Hoxne hoard is the best-known.

On this day, November 16, in 1992, while scanning the ground with his metal detector in search of a friend’s missing hammer, Eric Lawes, a retired gardener and amateur metal detectorist, found a buried chest of treasure instead.

Inside was an archaeologist’s dream: over 500 golden and 14,000 silver coins, along with other precious metal objects all dating back to the 4th century A.D., around the time Roman rule was ending in Britain. The Hoxne family (pronounced Hoxon) was likely feeling vulnerable out in the countryside, with Saxon raiders now undeterred by the waning Roman military. The careful arrangement of items inside the chest suggests they may have intended to come back for it when the danger passed.