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A Newcastle University student from Florida discovered medieval gold within 90 minutes of her first archaeological dig.
The excavation site in Northumberland was chosen after a metal detectorist found gold there in 2021.
The location was along a major Roman road and now part of modern-day A68.
An archaeology student had quite the reversal of fortune in the field. Yara Souza, a Florida native currently studying at Newcastle University in the U.K., had to pull out of her first-ever dig before it started last year due to illness. Fast forward to this July, while on her delayed field debut, it took Souza just 90 minutes to discover medieval gold while digging in Redesdale, Northumberland in England.
“I couldn’t believe I’d found something so quickly into my first-ever excavation,” Souza said in a statement from the school. “It was actually quite overwhelming. After I’d had to miss Bridoswald last year, it was amazing to discover something that hasn’t been seen for more than a thousand years. I was really geeking out over it!”
The school chose the location in Northumberland for the 2025 dig after a metal detectorist uncovered a similar gold item there in 2021. Located along the modern-day A68 road in Britain, the site was once the route of Dere Street, a major Roman road connecting York and Edinburgh.
Souza dug up a piece of gold about 1.5 inches long with a decorative finial on one end. Since gold was a symbol of status carried only by the elite—and since Dere Street also connected the major religious centers of Jedburgh and Hexham—experts believe both the 2021 and 2025 finds could have held a religious or ceremonial use. They may have even been deliberately buried in that spot.
“This is an exciting find of exceptional quality and I’m delighted for Yara that she has made this discovery at the beginning of her career as an archaeologist,” James Gerrard, professor of Roman Archaeology at Newcastle and Souza’s tutor, said in a statement. “We know that Dere Street continued to be a major thoroughfare long after the Romans and it’s clear form this discovery that high status people were using it.”
Roman soldiers created Dere Street, also known as the Great North Road, between 79 and 81 A.D., shortly after the Roman Empire started its four-century reign in Britain in 43 A.D. The 2024 dig that Souza missed was at Birdoswald Roman Fort, a Roman military camp along Hadrian’s Wall. The 2025 dig was about 60 miles away in Redesdale’s Northumberland National Park.
The Newcastle team plans to further analyze Souza’s find and then display it in the Great North Museum: Hancock.
“This project is a great example of how metal detectorists and archaeologists can come together to add to our understanding of the past in Northumberland,” Andre Agate, the Portable Antiquities Scheme’s finds liaison officer for Northeast England, said in a statement. “Being able to work closely with Newcastle University and the great North Museum: Hancock meant we could train students in archaeological techniques while investigating the context of these important early medieval finds.”
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