A Norfolk Treasure: A Roman Earring Unearthed by a Weekend Detectorist
An amateur treasure hunter in Norfolk has made a remarkable find of Roman gold after years of patient, weekend searching. The discovery was reported by BBC News, highlighting how a hobby born during lockdown finally yielded a striking piece of history.
Builder Nick Bateman, aged 53, started his fieldwork during the COVID-19 pandemic, drawn to the romance of uncovering objects from the past. What began as a modest pastime gradually grew into a serious pursuit. For a long spell, the Burston area in Norfolk County offered little more than disappointment, a place where a metal detector often only flagged refuse and bits of modern detritus rather than a treasure. Still, perseverance mattered more than luck in this story, and Bateman kept returning to the same fields, eyes peeled for any hint of a hidden chapter from antiquity.
Then a day last year changed everything. Bateman described heading out for a brief search before Christmas, confident only in a small window of time. He recalls the signal wasn’t promising and that the first few digs yielded little more than uncertainty. After digging several inches, a glint drew his attention away from skepticism. What appeared to be a commonplace find at first glance proved to be something far rarer and more significant as the mud cleared. He later recounted that he dropped to his knees in disbelief when the object finally revealed itself as gold.
The item proved to be an earring whose initial dating placed it in the Middle Ages because a tiny cross appeared in one loop. A closer examination by a professional numismatist, however, revealed a different signature: a laurel wreath and an eagle, marks associated with Roman craftsmanship. The piece is formed from two gold discs that were soldered together and originally designed to be worn with two loops. One loop remains intact while the other, the other part, appears to have become detached at some point in the earring’s long journey through time.
As Bateman reflects on the discovery, he wonders about the life of a Roman mistress who might have worn the ornament. He imagines how a Roman woman of status could have looked and lived, and he ponders how the earring ended up lost in a Norfolk field. The tale blends curiosity, history, and the randomness of fieldwork into a vivid snapshot of life in ancient times.
The remarkable find has found a home in a museum nearby, where it will be on display for visitors to study and admire. The story has sparked interest beyond the local area, illustrating how accessible history can be when curiosity meets persistence and the right timing aligns with chance. The artifact’s journey from a quiet field to a public exhibit offers a tangible link to an era long past, inviting viewers to imagine worlds shaped by laurel crowns and imperial symbols. This discovery serves as a reminder that even in ordinary landscapes, the past can surface with surprising clarity, transforming a routine day of metal detecting into a window into antiquity.