Hoxne Hoard
buried hoard FOUND fame 3/5
The largest late-Roman gold and silver hoard found in Britain — about 15,000 coins and 200 objects deposited after 407 CE, found by a metal detectorist looking for a lost hammer near Hoxne, Suffolk, in 1992.
Resolved (1992-11-16): Found 16 November 1992 by Eric Lawes while searching a Hoxne field for a friend's lost hammer; block-lifted by Suffolk archaeologists the next day.
Scorecard
Exists
LIKELY
band 4/5 · raw +3.20
- +2.35 · On 16 November 1992 Eric Lawes, searching for a friend's lost hammer, found the…
- +0.24 · A coroner's inquest declared the hoard treasure trove in 1993; it was valued at…
- +0.23 · Late Roman Britain saw exceptional concentrations of precious-metal hoarding…
Findable now
LONG-SHOT
band 2/5 · raw +0.04
- +0.04 · Metal detecting was widespread on Suffolk farmland by the late 1980s, and the…
Findable (frontier)
LONG-SHOT
band 2/5 · raw +0.04
- +0.04 · Metal detecting was widespread on Suffolk farmland by the late 1980s, and the…
Location hypotheses
NO_LOCATION_DATA
No location hypothesis has been recorded for this treasure, so there is nothing to plot — and this tool never fabricates a map or a dig site. Per the scoring gates, an absence of location data caps Findable now at band 2 (LONG-SHOT).
What would it take?
No emerging or speculative technique changes the picture yet — the frontier findability band (LONG-SHOT) equals the current band. A breakthrough here would need a genuinely new capability, not just a maturing one.
Evidence ledger (7 verified facts)
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The Mildenhall Treasure, ploughed up in 1942 about 30 km from Hoxne, proved that spectacular late-Roman silver plate survived in Suffolk soil.known by 1946-07-01 · diagnosticity medium · confidence 0.90↳ Wikipedia: Mildenhall Treasure journalistic
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Late Roman Britain saw exceptional concentrations of precious-metal hoarding around the collapse of imperial administration (c. 400-450 CE), and East Anglia was long recognized in numismatic surveys as the densest region for such terminal hoards.known by 1981-01-01 · diagnosticity medium · confidence 0.90↳ Wikipedia: Hoxne Hoard journalistic
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The Thetford Hoard (found 1979, Norfolk) and a run of 1970s-80s detector finds established an ongoing pattern of late-Roman gold and silver recovery across East Anglia.known by 1981-06-01 · diagnosticity medium · confidence 0.90↳ Wikipedia: Thetford Hoard journalistic
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Numismatic studies of clipped siliquae showed that Roman coinage circulated in Britain after the 407 withdrawal, and that hoards closing after 407 cluster in East Anglia — implying further terminal hoards awaited discovery.known by 1985-01-01 · diagnosticity medium · confidence 0.80↳ Catherine Johns, The Hoxne Late Roman Treasure (British Museum Press, 2010) academic
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Metal detecting was widespread on Suffolk farmland by the late 1980s, and the county archaeological unit maintained a working relationship with local detectorists, raising the odds a chance find would be reported and excavated professionally.known by 1990-01-01 · diagnosticity low · confidence 0.80↳ Wikipedia: Hoxne Hoard journalistic
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On 16 November 1992 Eric Lawes, searching for a friend's lost hammer, found the hoard: about 15,000 gold and silver coins plus some 200 items of jewellery and tableware, block-lifted intact by Suffolk archaeologists the following day.known by 1992-11-20 · diagnosticity high · confidence 0.98↳ Wikipedia: Hoxne Hoard journalistic
“found by Eric Lawes, a metal detectorist ... searching for a lost hammer”
↳ Roger Bland & Catherine Johns, The Hoxne Treasure: An Illustrated Introduction (British Museum Press, 1993) academic -
A coroner's inquest declared the hoard treasure trove in 1993; it was valued at 1.75 million pounds, acquired by the British Museum, and the reward shared between Lawes and the landowner.known by 1993-11-01 · diagnosticity medium · confidence 0.95↳ Wikipedia: Hoxne Hoard journalistic