The Alfred Jewel: A 1,100-year-old treasure from England's first king that proclaims 'Alfred ordered me to be made'

a gold bezel with inscription around the edges holds a cloisonne gemstone depicting a man — The Alfred Jewel was made in the ninth century.

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QUICK FACTS

Name: The Alfred Jewel

What it is: Gold-encased cloisonné gemstone with inscription

Where it is from: Somerset county, England

When it was made: A.D. 871 to 899

The Alfred Jewel, which is in the collection of the Ashmolean Museum at the University of Oxford, is assumed to have been made between 871 and 899, during the reign of King Alfred the Great. Alfred initially ruled as king of the West Saxons (Wessex), one of seven Anglo-Saxon kingdoms at the time. In 886, he expanded his power to the entirety of England and has thus been considered the first English king.

King Alfred had a reputation as a savvy military leader since he helped fight off Viking invasions in the ninth century. He was also a highly educated man who had numerous religious texts translated from Latin into Old English. According to the Ashmolean Museum, Alfred distributed these religious manuscripts to bishops in the Anglo-Saxon kingdom along with an aestel, which was a kind of bookmark or pointer to help keep one's place while reading. The Alfred Jewel is likely the end of an aestel.

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Kristina Killgrove is a staff writer at Live Science with a focus on archaeology and paleoanthropology news. Her articles have also appeared in venues such as Forbes, Smithsonian, and Mental Floss. Kristina holds a Ph.D. in biological anthropology and an M.A. in classical archaeology from the University of North Carolina, as well as a B.A. in Latin from the University of Virginia, and she was formerly a university professor and researcher. She has received awards from the Society for American Archaeology and the American Anthropological Association for her science writing.