How do people keep finding treasure in British fields that is hundreds of years old and why is it scattered there in the first place?
In: 590
For all that it seems static to us, the Earth is constantly in subtle motion in little and big ways. If you’ve ever lived on a farm in a region with stony ground and tough winters, you’ll know that the spring thaw brings a crop of fresh stones. The cycle of freezing and thawing slowly moved buried stones closer to the surface, and that happens with a lot of things. Human activity in previously unsettled areas also leads to the discovery of something new every so often. Erosion over centuries can expose long-hidden secrets.
Lots of mechanisms exist which mean that there’s always new strata being exposed, and all that goes with it.
Because England has been relatively heavily populated for a long time.
If you mention to someone in America that your house was built in 1909 they’ll probably comment on how OLD that house is. In England they’d likely not bat an eye. Our war of Independence was fought a little over a couple hundred years ago. England as a united country has existed for well over a thousand years (Athelstan was crowned King of the English in the early 10th century). Before that it was colonized by Rome.
People drop/lose stuff. People get in wars. People bury stuff to protect it and then die without telling people. Over time things happen.
Britain has a lot of history, Julius Caesar even popped over for a few weeks.
You’ll get a bit of bias from English languages and media, but this sort of stuff is found all over Europe too.
Sometimes its graves and burials, other times it might be hoards, essentially buried treasure.
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It happens in nations all over the world. Years ago, people couldn’t just direct-deposit their money in a bank and withdraw it when needed using an ATM card. And if they kept their money inside their homes, it was easier for others to find and steal it. So, people often buried money and other valuables in hidden caches, especially during times of war and other strife (of which Europe has seen a lot). But then people sometimes died, before digging that wealth back up again and before telling anyone else where is was hidden.