In 2023, two metal detectorists discovered an assemblage of five Anglo-Saxon gold and garnet jewels on a hillside near Donington on Bain in Lincolnshire, UK. Dating to the 7th century, they were found dispersed over a radius of 20-30 feet in plough soil, indicating they had recently been churned up by deep cultivation. The assemblage is the largest group of gold and garnet jewelry known from Lincolnshire.The largest jewel in the grouping is a D-shaped pendant with an inset garnet decorated with gold bands and panels of gold wire filigree. It has damage in the upper right corner that is so finely wrought it was unlikely to have been caused by agricultural activity. Its more likely that it was done with tools, either during the setting of the garnet or before burial.Also in the assemblage is a gold disc pendant with a garnet in the center and eight double-twisted filigree ropes radiating out from the gemstone in a star shape. It shows minor damage in the gold wire border and filigree. A second circular gold pendant featured beaded filigree on the suspension loop and s-shaped scrolls. It once contained a gemstone at the center, but that has been lost. The gold sheet has been bent inwards in the upper left.The fourth pendant is the smallest of the group. It is a lightweight piece made of gold sheet with a gold strip border decorated with gold beading. A dark red gemstone (also likely a garnet) is set in the center. There is a crack across the surface.The last piece is a domed gold boss decorated with garnet cloisonne cells. The circular cell in the top center contains remains of its garnet, and only two of the five triangular cells on the side still contain their garnets. The cells have gold wire borders, one undecorated, two beaded. This may have been the dome of a brooch that was later converted into a pendant. It is the first example of a crown arches style of decoration found in Lincolnshire.Pendants with large garnet settlings were part of elaborate necklaces that also included beads, spacers and smaller pendants, found in the graves of high-status women from the period, but this assemblage is lacking the other necklace elements or any other artifacts typically found in female Anglo-Saxon burials. There was no evidence of a grave or human remains at the find site. One of the metal detectorists had explored the field many times over the course of more than 10 years and never found any other Anglo-Saxon artifacts or grave materials.Lincolnshire Portable Antiquities Scheme finds liaison officer Lisa Brundle has been studying the assemblage and recently published her findings in the Oxford Journal of Archaeology.The Donington group of jewels is unlikely to have been a necklace set from an Anglo-Saxon womans grave, Brundle noted, because no beads or spacers were found to suggest they had all been strung together. To try and unravel the mystery, Brundle instead sought alternate explanations for why these five items were found in a group.One possibility is that the assemblage derives from a smiths hoard, Brundle wrote.During the seventh century, garnet supplies were dwindling, and an itinerant goldsmith may have collected some antique jewels to modify into new accessories. How the smith collected them is up for debate, though, as grave-robbers are known to have targeted high-status womens graves to remove their prized jewels, Brundle wrote in the study.Removing the pendants from circulation can also be seen as a kind of ritual killing, which transformed powerful, antique symbols of elite status into new items no longer connected to those individuals, Brundle noted.But it is also possible that one or more women simply gathered their own jewelry and hid it away.One interpretation is that the assemblage represents the treasured possessions of kin or social groups, deliberately concealed during periods of instability or transition, Brundle wrote.The assemblage has been declared Treasure and acquired by the Lincoln Museum.