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Building the collection and extending knowledge
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The Vale of York
This is the most important and exciting Viking hoard found in Britain for nearly 170 years. The hoard consists of 617 silver coins, one gold and five silver arm-rings, as well as around 65 other silver artefacts. But the star piece is a gilt-silver vessel, made in northern France or Germany around the middle of the ninth century.
Recent acquisitions
Brown glass claw beaker found at Ringlemere, Kent. Anglo-Saxon.
Relief of King Louis XIV, by David Le Marchand, France, 1690-6.
Figurine of a horse-and-rider, 3rd-4th century, Romano-British
Gold aureus of Carausius (286–93), struck at London, reverse: PAX AVG; Pax holding olive branch and sceptre
Knowledge is Sweeter than Honey by Susan
Hefuna, Cairo, 2007
© Susan Hefuna
We Were Brave by Sokari Douglas Camp,
2006
© Sokari Douglas Camp
Research projects
British Museum curators, conservators, scientists and educators are continuously engaged in research on the collection and its context in London, across the UK and throughout the world.
Key projects include:
Excavations at Domuztepe
A key period of change in prehistory. – the largest known late
Neolithic period settlement. This archaeological site is
located
in south-central Turkey and is the largest known example of a
settlement from the Late Neolithic (around 6,500-5,500 BC).
Happisburgh
The site of the oldest known evidence for humans in northern
Europe. Over the past six years, archaeologists excavating
on the coast of eastern England have uncovered remains that
revolutionise the way we think about the early human
colonisation of northern Europe.
Find out more about ongoing research