The archeology student of Florida finds rare gold of the ninth century during his first excavation in the United Kingdom

An American archeology student in his first excavation found a rare piece of gold from the ninth century.

Yara Souza, who is from Orlando, Florida, is an international student at the University of Newcastle in the United Kingdom, was part of an excavation of July in networksdale, Northumberland, in the northeast of England when he made the discovery about 90 minutes in his excavation, the university announced.

“I couldn’t believe I had found something so fast in my first excavation,” Souza said in a press release. “Having had to miss Birdoswald last year, it was surprising to discover something that has not been seen for more than a thousand years, I was really getting out of that.”

Birdoswald Roman Fort is another excavation in which students from Newcastle University participated last year.

According to the university, the early medieval object, approximately 1.5 inches long with a decorative ending at one end, was buried near the Route of Dere Street, a large Roman road that spread between York, England and Edinburgh, Scotland. Dere Street was still used after the fall of the Roman Empire and became part of the modern A68 road.

Archeology students, together with archaeologists from the Northeast museums, were investigating the location, since it was the site of a casual discovery of a similar object in 2021.

“This is an exciting finding of exceptional quality,” said Archeology professor at Newcastle University, James Gerrard. “We know that Dere Street continued to be an important way long after the Romans and this discovery is clear that high status people were using it.”

According to the university, gold was considered high status and was only used by the elite. The experts involved in the excavation believe that the object found by Souza and discovered in 2021 could have had religious or ceremonial use.

“It is possible that this pair of objects has been deliberately buried,” Gerrad added.

The piece will be analyzed more and could eventually be exhibited in a local museum.

• Archaeologist
• Florida
• United Kingdom