While surveying the English countryside, amateur metal detectorist Jamie Harcourt stumbled upon a small jeweled piece of an Anglo-Saxon sword—that might once have belonged to a medieval lord or noble. No larger than the tip of a finger, the artifact was identified as a “sword pyramid,” a decoratively crafted gold and garnet (a red translucent stone) faceted object, which would have served to hold the weapon secure in its scabbard. The object was discovered last April in Breckland district, Norfolk, near the famed Sutton Hoo grave site where an Anglo-Saxon boat was found buried with a wealth of artifacts in 1938, including a sword bearing adornments resembling the recent find. Finds liaison officer Helen Geake, of the Portable Antiquities Scheme, said of such pieces: “Lords would have been careening about the countryside on their horses and they’d lose them,” BBC reported. The Scheme stated that such pyramids are less commonly found …