The Areas Grey
Embedded Files
COLLECTION
Sometimes history leaves something behind
for us to find...
The Areas Grey Collection.
The Areas Grey Collection.
The artefacts in the Areas Grey Collection were not bought, traded, or lifted from museum shelves. They were discovered the old-fashioned way.
Many were found during real world exploration, in places where history had simply been forgotten. Others were recovered from sites at risk of development, looting, natural decay, or simple neglect. Left alone, most would likely have vanished without record.
Some objects are modest. A few are quite rare. All offer a genuine glimpse into the past.
Every item in the collection was recovered rightfully and recorded at the time of discovery. Precise locations have been withheld to protect the sites from which they came.
The past is not distant.
It rests beneath our boots, hidden in hedgerows, buried in silt,
waiting patiently to be noticed.
Agadez Cross
Agadez Cross
Period: 15th Century
Material: Silver
Location: Morocco
Description: While many replicas and copies have been made of these, this one is a genuine relic recovered from Morocco. A berber/Tuareg pendant which symbolizes the four cardinal points and serves as a navigational compass and talisman against evil. Created using silver and the lost wax casting process without ever hammering the metal.
Title
Title
Period: Qing Dynasty era 1644–1912
Material: Copper
Location: China
Description: Qing Dynasty Coin, that travelled down the Silk road all the way to eastern France
Kalinago carved head
Kalinago carved head
Period: Modern
Material: Tree fern
Location: Dominica
Description: These carved heads are symbolic of the Kalinago people of Dominica’s connection with the island’s forests.
Ritual Wine Vessel (Guang)
Ritual Wine Vessel (Guang)
Period: 13th-11th century B.C.E (late Shang Dynasty)
Material: Bronze
Location: China
Description: Shang Dynasty gong Chinese ritual bronze wine drinking vessel. The design depicts dragons, birds and other creatures. Such vessels were used for pouring wine offerings on ancestral altars or during ritual banquets by Shang kings.
Guanches Ceramic Sherd
Guanches Ceramic Sherd
Period: at least 15th century
Material: Clay
Location: Tenerife, Spain
Description: A fragment of a hand-formed clay vessel like which would have been used to storing belongings, for cooking, or for religious rituals by the Guanches peoples.
17th Century Iron Nail
17th Century Iron Nail
Period: 17th - 18th Century
Material: Iron
Location: Tenerife, Spain
Description: Nails like this would have been regularly used in 17th Century construction such as in the house of Amaro Pargo.
Croix de Lorraine
Croix de Lorraine
Period: Modern
Material: Gold plated brass with cubic zirconia
Location: Lytham St. Anne, UK
Description: While the resting place of the true Croix de Lorraine has never been discovered, this is the prize from an armchair treasure hunt known as The Bossall Treasure which was created by Douglas George Pearson and released in 2014.
By solving the puzzles in the book we discovered the hiding place of the cross in 2024.
Saint Barbara Devotional Medal (Pendant)
Saint Barbara Devotional Medal (Pendant)
Period: Early 20th century (c. 1900–1930)
Material: Gilt brass or gold-tone alloy with enamel detailing
Location: Tenerife, Spain
Description: small Catholic devotional medal depicting Saint Barbara, a Christian martyr traditionally associated with protection against sudden death and danger.
Tuareg Cross
Tuareg Cross
Period: Modern
Material: Brass
Location: Sahara Desert, Africa.
Description: Modern replica of a Tuareg cross. Worn by nomadic Tuareg people of the Sahara desert to protect against evil spirits. Representing the four corners of the world, these symbols are passed from father to son to signify adulthood and safe passage.
Ghanaian Ashanti Powder Flask
Ghanaian Ashanti Powder Flask
Period: 19th Century
Material: Bronze
Location: Ghana
Description: Used by the Akan peoples to hold gunpowder or gold dust.
Unknown Object
Unknown Object
Period: Unknown
Material: Unknown
Location: Cornwall, UK
Description: Located from the site where it is believed the pirate Henry Every stashed his three chests of treasure.
Chi-Rho Constantantus II coin
Chi-Rho Constantantus II coin
Period: 350-375AD
Material: Bronze
Location: Sorrento, Italy
Description: A coin from the reign of Constantius II, son of Constantine the Great that might have passed through hundreds of hands… carrying one of the earliest state-backed symbols of Christianity across an empire still half-rooted in its pagan past.
Dragon Hair Pin
Dragon Hair Pin
Period: Edwardian
Material: Silver
Location: Tenerife, Spain
Description: A decorative hat pin or hair pin, most likely East Asian inspired, probably Chinese or Chinese-style export jewellery. Asian motifs became very fashionable in Europe during the Orientalism craze.
Crusader Era Petty Coin
Crusader Era Petty Coin
Period: 13th-15th century
Material: Bronze
Location: Nepal, Italy
Description: Believed to be a low-denomination coin for crusader camps or ports.
Amber Necklace
Amber Necklace
Period: Early 20th Century
Material: Amber
Location: Northern Europe
Description: For a long period during the human occupation of the northern shores, washed up Amber was turned into jewellery. Especially in the 1920s these jewellery styles became popular.
Bronze Age Axe Head
Bronze Age Axe Head
Period: British Bronze Age 2200 BC to ~800 BC
Material: Bronze
Location: Wales, UK
Description: An axehead, made out of another object. Through the folding, the quality and the shape of the axehead, you can clearly see that someone with not much knowledge of smithing, tried to make a tool, in this case an axehead, out of a bronze object (possibly a sword or dagger).
Roman Constantius I Chlorus coin
Roman Constantius I Chlorus coin
Period: 307-310AD
Material: Bronze
Location: Sorrento, Italy
Description: To the Constantius the Dutiful”. The reverse depicts an eagle standing looking left, standing on an altar or platform. “To the eternal memory”.
Roman Felicitas Augustus Coin
Roman Felicitas Augustus Coin
Period: 260-269AD
Material: Bronze/silver alloy
Location: Sorrento, Italy
Description: Postumus mint from gallic empire. The reverse shows goddess of good fortune and prosperity with cornucopia in left hand and caduceus or possibly glob scepter in right hand.
Duc de Bretagne Bottle
Duc de Bretagne Bottle
Period: 19th Century
Material: Glass, leather, and wood
Location: France
Description: In the late 1800s early 1900s came up a trend of celebrating the history of ones country, some sort of patriotic design phase.
Unknown Object
Unknown Object
Period: Unknown
Material: Bronze
Location: Italy
Description: Discovered while walking in public area of south west Italy. The object is clearly old and not likely valuable but also unidentifiable .
Arabic Silver Sugar Bowl
Arabic Silver Sugar Bowl
Period: Likely a modern replica.
Material: Silver plated copper
Location: Leeds, UK
Description: Discovered by chance in a river in Leeds. Appears to be the lower half of a silver plate Arabic sugar bowl with silver stamp in Arabic.
Rosary Bead
Rosary Bead
Period: Unknown
Material: Silver (not confirmed)
Location: Nassau, Caribbean
Description: Found within proximity of the San Jose shipwreck site. The object appears to be a solitary rosary bead made likely of silver. If the item is from the San Jose shipwreck it likely dates to at least the early 18th century.
Top part of a medieval Bottle
Top part of a medieval Bottle
Period: 13th - 18th century
Material: Stoneware
Location: Leeds, UK
Description: The top part of a Bottle that can be dated to the 13th to 18th century. Recovered from riverbed in Leeds, West Yorkshire in close proximity to the Kirkstall Abbey.
Long-cross silver penny of Edward I of England
Long-cross silver penny of Edward I of England
Period: 1279–1320 AD
Material: Sterling Silver
Location: Leeds, UK
Description: This is a long-cross silver penny of Edward I of England (sometimes also struck early in the reign of Edward II of England, using the same portrait style).
(possibly) Neapolitan Sailors talisman
(possibly) Neapolitan Sailors talisman
Period: 16th-18th Century
Material:
Location: Sorrento, Italy
Description: If this is a sailors talisman it was made to protect the bearer at sea.
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