Welcome to the British History Podcast, my name is Jamie.

And today we're going to hear from Dr. David Simmons, I think you're going to really like

this one.

He has a lot to share with us regarding interpreting the Horde and really seeing what it means

and of course pointing out all the mysteries of the Horde of which there are quite a

lot.

He's also going to share with us a few aspects of the craftsmanship involved in it.

It's all really interesting stuff.

I learned a hell of a lot while listening to him and I hope you do too.

Alright, let's get going.

I'm Dr. David Simmons.

I'm now the curator of antiquities and numismatics here in Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery.

Basically numismatics and archaeology translates as coins and old stuff.

So treasures and coins and things like that?

Yeah, it's essentially I look after stuff from the ancient Mediterranean cultures like

Cyprus, Greece, Rome and I do the archaeology of Britain from the Roman period to the

end of the Middle Ages, look after all of the coin collections and coins and metals tokens,

which again is ancient Greece through to the 20th century.

So how did you get involved in the Staffordshire Horde project?

Well, I'm really involved because I look after the collection from the Saxon period here

in the museum.

The chap called Duncan Slark, who was the person who actually was sort of first in touch

...