91Èȱ¬

Vintage jewellery is always en vogue, so it's no surprise that Clementine, The Living Fashion Doll, has a hoard that rivals the treasures of Tutankamun.

Norfolk might not have a pyramid of riches or a Mayan temple filled with booby-traps waiting for a would-be adventurer - but after hearing rumours that a Doctor Jones was last seen hunting for a priceless glass skull in the Amazon Basin - Clementine felt it was only fair to start her own search for something really old.

Clementine takes an archaeological quest

"I'm really after something dated BC - you know, before Cher - hidden in the mystical Temple Of Glamour," said Clementine.

"My research tells me that Norfolk has given up many hidden treasures over the years, some of which are now on display in the county's museums.

"If I can unearth a little trinket or two, wearing my gorgeous new explorer's outfit of course, I'll be a delighted dolly-diva. I might even burst into one of my fabulous songs," she added.

By bringing her treasure quest to Norfolk, Clementine is in the right place when it comes to looking for gold.

Thetford Treasure

In 1979 a remarkable hoard of late-Roman gold jewellery and silver tableware was found near Thetford by a person using a metal detector.

It later became known as the Thetford Treasure and is believed to have been buried around 390 AD due to a clamp down on religious cults.

"The Thetford Treasure is of national and international importance as it contains one of the finest sets of late Roman silver plate and jewellery known from the late Roman period," said Richard Hobbs, curator of the British Museum.

The hoard features a number of eye-catching objects including a gold belt buckle, a small figure of Mercury and a key handle showing a lion eating a man.

"A lion eating a man, what is this - a Roman version of Tarzan? Then again, if it's an excuse to scamper around in a loin cloth I'm hardly going to complain," said Clementine.

Jewellery from the Thetford Treasure set

Visitors can see the collection at the Ancient House Museum in a special exhibition that runs until December 2008.

Half-a-million years

According to Norfolk Landscape Archaeology, the county has more than 50,000 known archaeological sites spanning half-a-million years of human activity.

The sites range from prehistoric burial mounds and flint tools, to 20th-century industrial buildings and World War II defensive structures.

Recent excavations and surveys have examined sites of every period, including early Neolithic remains and a Medieval building at Cley-next-the-Sea.

Experts have also recorded Iron Age and Roman settlements at Watlington, Saxon buildings at Costessey, medieval salt-making at West Lynn, Norwich's Saxon defences at Cinema City and a Victorian mortuary at Thorpe St Andrew.

Snettisham treasure

One of the richest discoveries of Iron Age treasure in the country was found at Snettisham. The Great Torc, made with great skill in the first half of the first century BC, was found in the area in 1950. Other hoards were also found in the same field.

Bronze Age gold bracelets found buried at Foxley, Norfolk can also be seen at Norwich Castle Museum.

The museum has also acquired an Anglo Saxon sword pyramid found at Shouldham, Norfolk and a 145-piece hoard of Bronze Age weapons found at Eaton, Norwich.

Will an explorer find goddess Clementine

"I could do with some more bling and they say vintage is in," said Clementine, as she prepared to dig for hidden treasure in a Norfolk field in the hope of uncovering some new gems for her jewellery box.

"I won't need a metal detector, I can sniff out glamour even if it's been buried for hundreds of year," she added.

Like a magpie, anything that glitters is treasure in Clementine's eye and she'll be quite happy for hours admiring her reflection in the shiny gold case on her new lippy, but some advice:

• All finders of gold and silver objects, and groups of coins from the same findspot, which are more than 300 years old, have a legal obligation to report such items under the Treasure Act 1996.
• You must report all finds of Treasure to a coroner for the district in which they are found either within 14 days after the day on which you made the discovery or within 14 days after the day on which you realised the find might be treasure.

Clementine's story

If this is the first time you've met Clementine, here's her back story:

Clementine came to life following a freak accident when the nuclear heart from a falling satellite exploded into a plastics factory and landed in her mould. She was sold to a freak-show, but escaped with the help of the strong-man.

She now lives in a London penthouse, but her road to fame and fortune started on a beach in Sheringham when she was discovered splashing in the surf by Norfolk puppeteer Mark Mander. He now works as her manager and designer.

A dolly-diva, imagine the love-child of Lucile Ball and Barbie, Clementine works as a singing star, fashion icon and TV presenter with her tiny feet steeped in both fantasy and reality.

Sometimes she can be as sassy as Samantha from Sex in The City, and at others as naive as Ugly Betty!