The lid from someone's treasure box was found in a wooden building which stood in York just before the Norman Conquest. We know it was special because the entire lid was decorated with 19 strips of bone (cattle rib bones). Each of these was decorated with zigzag patterns of dots. The strips of bone had been attached to a wooden box lid and luckily there was enough of the wood still there to let archaeologists lift the lid in one piece.

This object spent a long time in store until recently, when it was worked on by conservators to make it possible to display it in JORVIK. Thanks to their hard work we can see again how expertly the craftsmen made this special box which probably once held coins, jewellery or other treasures and keepsakes. I wonder how it ended up in pieces.....