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Rare gold clasp for a 3000-year-old dress found in Greece

Maria Tsikhotska

Rare gold clasp for a 3000-year-old dress found in Greece
Gold dress clasp and other jewelry

In a plowed field near Ellaston in Staffordshire, treasure hunter Jonathan Needham found a rare gold dress clasp. The jewelry was made around 1000 BC.

Needham was walking with a metal detector when a signal prompted him to dig deeper. He soon discovered a clasp made of pure gold.

This was reported by the British Museum.

The distinctive design of the object, consisting of two cups, first made Needham think it was a drawer handle. However, experts have determined that it is an Iron Age clasp of Irish origin. It is one of seven such finds in England and Wales and one of the best preserved.

Finds like this one are evaluated independently. They can be purchased by a museum, and the proceeds are usually split between the finder and the landowner.

"This is something you couldn't have thought in your wildest dreams would happen to you," Needham said. "It's not even one in a million, it's one in a billion to find something like this."

Other finds

In addition to the clasp, other interesting archaeological artifacts have been found in England and Wales. For example, a miniature wooden figurine with two faces was found on the banks of the Thames in London: a human skull on one side and a woman's face on the other. The figurine was found by a woman named Caroline Nunnally.

A rosary carved from bone was also found at the same site. They look decent and date back to about 1450.

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