Eagle
Pendant - (The Eagles have Bonded)
A
long time ago (fifteen years to be exact), whilst out detecting
I found a small copper alloy eagle with broken loop (the bottom
of the two pieces below). I knew it was a pendant of sorts
but hadn't seen this type before, then I happened to buy a
book called “Benets – Artefacts of England
and the United Kingdom” and there on Page 184
was what appeared to be my eagle, but it wasn't just one eagle
that formed the pendant, it was two - in other words, I had
only found the half of it.
So,
for the last fifteen years, each time I detected
in the area where I had found the original eagle, I hoped
against hope that I would find the other half. Other detectorists
had visited this field many times over the years, so it was
very likely it had already been found and placed in someone
else's collection. So imagine my joy when I had a signal very
near to where I had dug up the original half of the eagle
pendant, I dug down and up popped the other half - amazing!
It
has been recorded with our FLO officer and a marshal. She
says the odds on them being a pair are 95% positive, and I
said "Well if they are not a pair" then there are
two more "other halves" out there waiting to be
found - but I won’t hold my breath.
I
am amazed that you can detect the same land over and over
again and still turn up things, it is said that the soil can
move things and objects within itself, so something that was
not detectable one week, can suddenly pop up the next - so
I suppose the moral of this story is, that even if somewhere
appears to have had the life detected out of it, it doesn't
mean there isn't something still there, just waiting for you
to find it.