How amazing is this find! Three times the size of Sutton Hoo. And found by an unemployed bloke with a metal detector.
Isn't it about time we stopped using the Gibbonesque term 'Dark Ages'? I think there's increasing evidence that the 'Dark' and 'Middle' Ages (it's defined in terms of ancient & modern - how rude!) were not the backstep that most people have assumed. Feel free to disagree! (Sorry for the continuing bonhomie, I'm still on holidays).
At its height in the second century A.D., the Roman Empire was the beacon of learning, power, and prosperity in the western world. But the once-powerful Rome...