Bronze age treasure unearthed

An amateur treasure hunter has unearthed one of the most important ever archaeological finds.

The discovery of a gold cup almost 4,000 years old, and worth at least £250,000, buried 15 inches under a field in Kent has astonished experts at the British Museum.

The beautifully embossed goblet has revealed an unknown burial site of a Bronze Age chieftain and may yield further clues to how people lived then.

It was discovered by Cliff Bradshaw, who took up treasure hunting eight years ago when he bought a metal detector for £320. He said it was the "most exciting" thing that had ever happened to him.

David Miles, chief archaeologist of English Heritage, said: "It is an outstanding and internationally important find. We have been able to undertake vital work excavating the prehistoric barrow mound and placing the magnificent cup in its context."

Stuart Needham, curator of European bronze age antiquities at the British Museum, said the cup added a further chapter to the story of European prehistory.

Today Mr Bradshaw described the "miraculous" moment when he unearthed the exquisite cup which has astonished experts and is only the second of its kind ever found. Mr Bradshaw, 69, could receive up to £250,000 for discovering the Bronze Age cup, which is now in the British Museum, although any compensation will have to be shared with the farmer on whose land it was buried.

The retired electrician said: "I knew it was worth going back to that field because I'd already found a Saxon brooch there. I got a faint signal, then it was getting louder and louder and this gold cup came out. It was about 15 inches down, which is quite deep. Another half inch and I wouldn't have detected it.

"I picked it up and scraped a pile of mud off with my boot and it was the most fantastic thing you could imagine. I saw a lot of gold gleaming at me. It was heart-stopping. I didn't think it was Saxon but I knew it was beautiful and I knew it was gold. "

The cup, dating from 1700-1500 BC, is made from some of the oldest gold ever found in Britain and is thought to be a ceremonial vessel.

Archaeologists say only someone of the highest status could have owned the cup, which was beaten with great skill from a solid lump of gold. Roughly contemporary with Stonehenge, which dates from 1800-1400 BC, it is one of the earliest treasures found in England, predating the Sutton Hoo Anglo-Saxon burial site in Suffolk by more than 2,000 years.

Mr Bradshaw, a divorced pensioner who lives in Broadstairs, said he realised its significance when he compared it with photographs of a similar treasure found in 1837.

"I took the cup home and looked in a book and then I knew I'd discovered something as important as the Rillaton cup, which was found buried with a human skeleton in Cornwall and is also in the British Museum. I immediately rang Keith Parfitt of the Canterbury Archaeological Trust but he didn't believe me at first. He almost fell off his chair the next morning when he opened his post and saw the photos I'd sent him."

The cup, which is four and a half inches tall, was in a wheat field at Ringlemere Farm, Woodnesborough, near Sandwich. The site is being excavated by English Heritage and a grave pit has been uncovered. It contains fragments of bones, possibly those of a warlord.

Less delighted are the two amateur archaeologists who initially obtained permission from the farmer, Andrew Smith, to use metal detectors in his field - but then invited Mr Bradshaw to take their place as they were digging elsewhere.

An inquest will decide the cup's status under the Treasure Act of 1996. If the coroner decides that it constitutes treasure, the British Museum will be given the opportunity to buy it - which could mean a fortune for Mr Bradshaw.

When Britain came out of the Stone Age