Yahoo Lifestyle 'TV show inspired me to unearth mysterious ring'
A filmmaker from Cornwall has revealed how a TV comedy and a dash of beginner's luck helped him uncover a "mysterious" Bronze Age gold ring.
As a documentary maker, Lemuel Lyes, 42, is used to being behind a TV camera, but it was watching BAFTA-winning sitcom Detectorists that inspired him to take up metal detecting.
Mr Lyes began the hobby at the start of 2024 - before finding the "once in a life time" piece of potential treasure exactly a month later.
He said he was "bewildered" when he found the gold penannular ring in a field near St Columb Major, adding: "I didn't want to get my hopes up... but when I saw other examples online I realised it really was something very, very special".
The rings were "not common finds, this is possibly one of the first to be found in Cornwall if not the first," he said.
"It's also one of the most highly-decorative examples I've seen anywhere in Britain."
'Not lathered in mud'
Mr Lyes, a history buff who moved from New Zealand two years ago, said: "I do need to thank the BBC series Detectorists for helping to encourage me.
"I've been a fan of that show for a long time and I think it's some of the most beautiful television ever made."
He said he loved how the show's main characters, played by Toby Jones and Mackenzie Crook, "weren't finding that much and they're still enjoying it", as well as how "geeky" all the characters got about their hobby, adding "I appreciated and related to that".
Mr Lyes said the show's representation of metal detecting was "pretty spot on", but one unrealistic thing that made him "chuckle" was that "they don't get lathered in mud".
"They all look far too clean to be out there."
'A beautiful thing to look at'
Mr Lyes said he had an "absolutely thrilling start to the hobby" finding "what is believed to be a late Bronze age gold penannular ring" which was "about 3,000 years old".
The rings have a distinctive gap in them but what they were used for is "a mystery", Mr Lyes said.
It was once believed they were used as money, he said, but it was now "generally accepted they were used for personal adornment".
He said his favourite theory was that they were earrings, but other people had suggested they were hair or nose rings.
Mr Lyes was taking part in an organised metal detecting rally when he found the "sensational" ring.
He said: "It was extremely misty and muddy - I'd been going at it for about six hours without any luck and I'd just decided to call it quits for the day when I got the signal.
"What was incredible about it was I saw it in the mud, I didn't even have to dig a hole - it was just sitting there."
He said it was a "a beautiful thing to look at" with "exceptionally sophisticated craftsmanship".
Mr Lyes said he found the ring thanks to "a huge amount of luck".
He said: "Until that find, I never really considered myself a very lucky person at all.
"The only thing that worked in my favour was perseverance and not skill - I tend to go out and stay out for as long as I can and it paid off that time."
He reported the ring to Cornwall's Finds Liaison Officer within 24 hours and handed it to them in person about two weeks later, so they could begin the process of determinising if it would be deemed treasure by a coroner's inquest.
'Potential treasure'
Until an inquest happens, finds had to be "referred to legally as potential treasure", Mr Lyes said, but "anything that is of historical interest is treasure in my mind".
The inquest could potentially be several years after the initial find.
Coin hoards, metallic objects more than 300 years old and made of at least 10% gold or silver, and groups of prehistoric metal objects are among the archaeological finds classed as treasure by the government.
Anyone who finds treasure in England and Wales has 14 days to report it to their local finds officer or coroner.
If a treasure find is bought, for example by a museum, the fee is usually split between the finders and the landowner - provided it was found legally.
County Finds Liaison Officer Laura Miucci said metal detecting's popularity had "taken off" since the Covid-19 lockdowns because it was a hobby people could do during social distancing.
She said the popularity of shows such as Detectorists and Time Team had also had a "big impact".
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