ABSTRACT
Many of the most important finds of objects of all prehistoric (and later) periods have been made by chance through digging for other purposes. This has meant that much contextual detail is lost, and the finds consequently difficult to assess. Cunnington describes the Bulbury1 group as a 'hoard', a term which implies they were deliberately concealed together for a specific purpose, which may or may not have included recovery. Later writers have seen some of these earlier finds as not 'hoards' in any real sense, but as the debris of settlement activity, particularly of craft-working.
