Yorkshire Museum hopes to keep precious Viking hoard

The Yorkshire Museum is hoping to raise funds to keep the Bedale hoard, a collection of Viking era precious metal and jewellery, in England.

The hoard, which includes a gold sword pommel, a neck ring, gold rivets, half a silver brooch and 29 silver ingots is believed to date back to the 10th century, but between now and March, the Yorkshire Museum, where the treasures have gone on display, needs to raise £51,636 to keep it.

Natalie McCaul, the museum's curator of archeology, says: ‘There are two factors that make it especially interesting to us.

Xanten: heart of Roman Germania

For someone who died 2,000 years ago, we know rather a lot about Marcus Caelius.

He was born in Bologna in 44BC and rose through the ranks of the Roman army to the rank of senior centurion in the 18th Legion.

In 9AD he was based at Castra Vetera, near the modern-day German town of Xanten – which is around 12 miles from the airport of Weeze/Niederrhein and near the border with Holland.

Castra Vetera was a extensive military and administrative base, close to the river Rhine, and second only to Cologne in importance for the Roman Empire in the region.