Buried Treasure

The find of the century

Armed with a metal detector, and counseled by his daughter's history schoolbook, a 38-year-old Irish building contractor set out to search for buried trea sure in County Tipperary. Near the town of Killenaule, not far from the ruins of sev eral medieval monasteries, and barely a foot below the surface of a bog, he made an astonishing discovery: a complete set of Communion vessels dating from the 8th or early 9th century. The choicest piece was a two-handled silver chalice, 8 in. high and ornamented with gold filigree and amber studs. With it, the contractor found a matching silver tray, called a paten, and a gilt-bronze ladle with perforations to strain grape pulp from the sacramental wine.

British and Irish archaeologists could scarcely contain their excitement over the discovery. Said James Graham-Camp bell, a medievalist at the University of London: "Nothing of this quality and importance has been found in Ireland in this century." Although it will take a year to restore the chalice, which was caked with a greenish mold, experts are already comparing it to the famed Ardagh chalice, discovered in 1868 in County Limerick and often described as the most beautiful in the world.

The Tipperary chalice is slightly larger than the Ardagh and may have been crafted in the same artisans' workshop. It is also believed to be some 50 years older.

But the Ardagh chalice did not have a paten or strainer with it.

To prevent amateur fortune hunters from scouring the ruins before experts from Dublin's National Museum got there, the Irish government invoked the Official Secrets Act and declared a 25-sq.-mi. zone around Killenaule a protected area. The chalice, paten and strainer, when found, were covered with a beaten bronze bowl; experts presume that monks had deliberately hidden them in the bog, probably to protect them from marauding Irishmen or even Vikings.

The circumstances of concealment are important under Irish law. If the buried treasure was intended for later recovery, then it becomes state property. But if the courts hold that the vessels were lost or abandoned, then the operative rule is "finders keepers." In that case, the contractor (whose name has not been revealed) could go home with his afternoon's discoveries, which have been conservatively valued at $4 million.

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