Bee's Knees' Detectorists' Sword Discovery Leads to Roman Villa and Iron Age Finds

It began with an extraordinary piece of fortune: a metal detectorist on only his second expedition coming upon two very rare cavalry swords on the point of being lost forever.

- Steven Morris

A dig by professional archaeologists and volunteers at the spot in Gloucestershire has now found that the swords may have been buried in the grounds of a grand Roman villa built on the site of an iron age settlement.

The work has led to the hypothesis that the swords, which go on display at the Corinium Museum in Cirencester from 2 August, may have been hidden in a Roman courtyard or garden to stop them falling into the hands of the Saxons as they surged through the region.

Peter Busby, a project officer for Cotswold Archaeology, likened the luck of finding the swords and the success of the dig to the "stars aligning".

He said over the years many detectorists had combed the field near Willersey, close to the border of Gloucestershire and Worcestershire.

The swords were found in 2023 about an inch below the surface.

Busby said they had been clipped by farm machinery so might have soon been destroyed had they not been discovered.