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Restored to its former glory: Staffordshire Hoard artefact gleams after clean-up

After spending more than a millennium underground, this Anglo-Saxon decorative mount has finally been restored to its former glory.

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Part of the Staffordshire Hoard, it was coated in thick soil. It took ten hours of work to get the gold and garnet surfaces glimmering.

The job was done by Birmingham Museums Trust conservator Lizzie Miller, from Moseley, who took photographs of her progress.

She said: "To me the hoard is one of the most significant archaeological finds of all time.

"It's the largest collection of Anglo-Saxon gold and silver metalwork ever found anywhere in the world and is the first real evidence we have of a warrior elite class, which brings the epic poems such as Beowulf to life.

Birmingham Museums Trust conservator Lizzie Miller

"It's a real privilege to be able to work on the Staffordshire hoard and I'm really happy to be able to assist with the preservation of this significant find.

"Seeing these beautiful objects gradually being revealed under the microscope after being buried 1400 years ago is very exciting.

The mount – which fell from an unknown object – was cleaned without the help of modern technology.

"The hoard mainly consists of gold objects and we found that natural Berberis thorns are the most effective way to clean these pieces.

"Gold is a relatively soft metal and scratches easily, so the thorn is a useful tool to gently pick away the soil whilst still being flexible enough not to damage the surface.

"In conservation it's important to be open-minded when deciding the right tool for an object. We use a wide range of different tools to clean objects, from porcupine quills to dental tools."

"It's a very elaborate object of the highest quality and is made from gold and garnets using a cloisonné technique.

"Each cell contains an individually cut garnet and underneath each of these is a tiny piece of stamped gold foil, which would have caught the light and made the garnets sparkle.

"The whole object took 10 hours to clean. The front section in the time lapse images took approximately four hours."

But now that the cleaning is done, the hard work really begins – working out just where the decorative mount may have come from.

The Staffordshire Hoard was found in 2009 just below the surface of a field at Hammerwich, on the Burntwood-Brownhills border.

The collection is the largest hoard of precious metal from the 7th Century period ever found. But the owners say an extra £120,000 is still needed to unlock the Hoard's secrets.

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