A MUSEUM is trying to raise £3,000 to save a stunning ancient treasure found in a field near Danbury and dating back 4,500 years to the time when Stonehenge had just been built.

Chelmsford Museum wants to keep the rare gold headband – called a diadem – in its public collection.

A metal detectorist was searching a ploughed field in the Danbury area in 2016 when his device alerted him to metal nearby.

After carefully removing the earth, he revealed a rolled-up strip of shining gold in the dark soil.

A British Museum expert later identified it as a diadem made from 95 per cent gold and dating back to the beginning of the Bronze Age – 4,500 years ago.

It was a time when people were only just starting to use copper and gold, making the headband possibly the oldest piece of gold metalwork in Essex.

If unwound, the diadem would go around somebody’s head.

Experts say it would have belonged to a very important person – maybe a powerful woman.

Chelmsford Museum consultant Nick Wickenden said: “Perhaps it was buried as an offering to the gods or perhaps its owner died or fell from power, and the diadem was ritually ‘decommissioned’ by rolling it into a tight spiral and burying it at a special location.

“In other parts of the world, diadems like this have been found with decorative embossing on the inside.

“This one cannot be unrolled to find out as that would risk damaging it, but advances in technology may one day allow us to look at the hidden side of the diadem without damaging it.

“Chelmsford Museum has contacted a metal analyst who would be able to tell us more about its origins, and a conservator who can clean and care for it.

“However, this can only happen if the public help us to save this stunning piece of treasure for Essex – to keep it in its hometown, on display for all to see as part of our story.”

Chelmsford Museum needs to raise £3,000 by the end of October to buy and display the diadem.

The pioneering piece of metalwork would take pride of place in a new display next to other ‘Beaker’ artefacts.

The museum is appealing to the public to help raise the cash.

People donating £25 will be invited to a private viewing of the diadem and a talk by a Bronze Age expert from the British Museum.

Those donating £100 will get an exclusive invitation to the launch of the newly-redeveloped museum.

The name of everyone who donates any amount will appear on a special roll of honour.

For more details, visit spacehive.com/essexgold.