TREASURE hunters will get a multi-million-pound windfall from the bequest of an amateur archaeologist.
The money may be used to finance expeditions to recover fabulous riches including King John's crown jewels, Spanish Armada gold bullion and Britain's own Atlantis - Doggerland.
Honor Frost, who died last year aged 92, left her entire art collection to be used to fund archaeological expeditions, it emerged this week.
The works include long-unseen masterpieces by artists Lucien Freud, Stanley Spencer and sculptor Henry Moore. They are expected to fetch up to £18million when they go under the hammer at Sotheby's in June. Honor, an only child, was orphaned young and brought up by a rich London solicitor.
She developed a passion for marine archaeology after reading about underwater explorer Jacques Cousteau and later working with a member of his team.
The millions raised from the auction will go to a specially formed charity that will sponsor expeditions. For the first time it will allow sustained, professional digs for treasures that, until now, have proved too difficult to find.
Our map charts some of the fabulous finds that could now be within reach.
ORKNEYS
THE Picts who occupied northern Britain for centuries spoke a very mysterious language.
Archaeologists would love to find an inscribed tablet, like the famous Rosetta Stone, with enough words to make the language decipherable. The relatively unexplored Orkneys would be a good place to start looking.
VALUE: £250,000.
HADRIAN'S WALL
EUROPE'S most famous fortification has been trodden over by thousands of metal detector-equipped enthusiasts.
But specialists in Roman history believe there are legions of exciting finds awaiting a proper search.
VALUE: £100,000 to £600,000.
DOGGERLAND
THIS once-occupied land mass is Britain's very own Atlantis. Sited in the North Sea, it was obliterated by flooding at the end of the last Ice Age.
Oil company surveys have recently revealed its possible locations and archaeologists lick their lips at the thought of historic artefacts that lie there. It is hard to get at because of centuries of silting and the stormy seas.
VALUE: £5million to £12million.
KING JOHN'S CROWN JEWELS
WHEN the King was in conflict with rebels in the east of England in 1216 - the year after his powers were curtailed by the signing of Magna Carta - his baggage train containing his crown jewels and other valuables was sucked into the Wash by the tide.
Possible sites are Sutton Bridge on the River Nene and Welland Estuary, Fosdyke.
VALUE: £50million to £85million.
THE HOLY GRAIL
LEGEND has it that Joseph of Arimathea brought the Holy Grail, the cup used by Jesus at the Last Supper, to Britain in about AD40.
The cup disappears from history but Joseph is supposed to have helped found Glastonbury Abbey in Somerset. It may be hidden near there.
VALUE: Priceless, but start bidding at £1billion.
BATTLE OF BRITAIN WRECKAGE
MUCH of the 1940 contest for the skies was fought over Kent between British Spitfires and German Messerschmitts. Some undoubtedly came down in the sparsely inhabited wetlands of Romney Marsh and are yet to be found.
VALUE: £250,000 or more, depending on the state of preservation.
CAMELOT
KING ARTHUR'S castle, home of the Round Table, was supposedly destroyed by Cornish King Mark in about 537.
Possible sites where artefacts from the castle could lie include South Cadbury in Somerset and Tintagel, Cornwall.
VALUE: £5million, but the Round Table itself would be worth at least double that.
CONWY CASTLE
KING EDWARD I built a chain of castles in the late 1200s to cement his conquest of Wales.
Conwy, on the north coast, was one of the more important and its surroundings are relatively unexplored because of later intensive building.
VALUE: Unknown.
SPANISH ARMADA
AFTER the Armada was defeated in the English Channel in 1588 surviving ships tried to make their way home the long way by sailing around Britain.
Many were wrecked - including one that according to local lore had gold on board - off the cliffs of Spanish Head in the southwest of the Isle of Man.
VALUE: £5million if gold-laden, a knockdown £750,000 if not.
KING CHARLES' TREASURE
A BARGE containing Charles I's treasure sank off the port of Burntisland, Fife, in 1633 during his tour of Scotland.
The barge, ironically called Blessing Of Burntisland, also contained valuable royal correspondence and many of the monarch's personal possessions.
VALUE: £300million.
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