Alfred Jewel, gold, rock crystal and  cloisonné enamel. Anglo-Saxon, 871-899, North Petherton, Somerset.

The Alfred Jewel is probably the single most famous archaeological object in England. It is comprised of a piece of cloisonné enamel depicting a human figure, thought to be a representation of the sense of sight. The eneamel is covered by a polished piece of rock crysta; and set in a gold frame that terminates in a beasts's head. The Old English inscription cut into the frame reads ALFRED MEC HEHT GEWYRCAN ('Alfred ordered me to be made').
The Alfred Jewel was discovered in 1693 by a labourer digging for peat at Newton Park in North Petherton, Somerset. North Petherton is near Athelney, where in 878 King Alfred the Great took refuge from the Vikings and later founded a monastery.
The jewel first entered the possession of Sir Thomas Wrothe, owner of Newton Park, who later presented it to his uncle, Colonel Nathaniel Palmer, a former member of Trinity College, Oxford. He bequeathed it to the University in 1717 with the intention that it would go to the Bodleian Library. Instead, it was deposited in the Ashmolean by his son, Thomas, in 1718.

Ashmolean Museum of Art and Archaeology