An early ring from Yorkshire

Trawling the internet is rather like metal detecting - you never know what you are going to find. The other day I came across a good example of this with a report from the MailOnline from 2013 about an apparently early Anglian or Anglo-Saxon sapphire ring that had been found by a metal detector at Escrick, south of York, in 2009.

The ring is currently assigned to the fifth or sixth century and may have originally been a brooch. The suggestion is that it was made on the continent rather than in Britain. What is especially striking is the quality and delicate detail of the design and craftsmanship of an item without parallel for that date in this country.

The ring can now be seen on display at the Yorkshire Museun in the grounds of St Mary’s Abbey in York.

The illustrated report about its discovery can be read here