Welcome to the History Extra podcast, fascinating historical conversations from the makers of BBC History Magazine.

Metal detectorists and members of the public have contributed hugely to our understanding of Britain's past, through the artefacts that they've found hidden in the ground.

Michael Lewis and Ian Richardson from the British Museum have written a new book Beneath Our Feet,

which explores some of the everyday discoveries that have re-shaped history.

From a Bronze Age Cup with magical properties to a Roman cavalry helmet

that would have been very hard to see out of. They spoke to David Musgrove and the first

voice you'll hear is Michael explaining what their book is all about, with Ian appearing later on

when we get to the Roman helmet. And if you hear anyone say PAS, that stands for the

portable antiquities scheme, the scheme managed by the British Museum that records archaeological

finds discovered by the public. Well, the idea is essentially that we wanted to tell the stories of

fines found by everyday people, most of them found by the metal

detecting community, but essentially finds that aren't made by professional archaeologists.

We wanted to tell the story of the find itself, the circumstances of discovery, and then also

what the kind of wider importance of those objects is as well.

All right, let's talk about a few of those objects is as well.

All right.

Let's talk about a few of the objects and finds that you talk about in the book.

We'll kind of go chronologically and we'll start with the Ringelmear Cup.

What's that?

Well, I mean, it is an amazing object. I was very, very, very lucky to be the fine liaison officer in Kent, whom this object was reported to.

So it's pretty dear to my heart, if you like.

Essentially, it's a Bronze Age Cup, so it's almost, you know, 4,000 years old, which is an incredible time period.

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