A rich and sophisticated Anglo-Saxon town emerging from an ancient island in the Lincolnshire marshes has been hailed as one of the most important archaeological finds on British soil in decades.

The previously unknown settlement, which is thought to have been a strategic trading post or an unusually wealthy monastic community, was discovered 1ft below the surface of a field by an experienced metal detectorist.

The first trenches sunk into the clay have revealed ornate writing tools, elegant glass weights and "Cudburg", a woman's name, inscribed into a lead plaque, as well as hundreds of coins known as sceattas.

All of these treasures suggest that the town was a cut above the average Saxon farmstead and amounts to a "site of international importance", a sort of Dark-Age Durham, according to Hugh Willmott, senior lecturer in archaeology at the University of Sheffield.

"It's a Middle Saxon site that's been previously completely unknown, and seems to have been pretty high status," he said. "The difference with this settlement is the nature of it: it's not just an ordinary rural settlement, it's encircled with a bank and ditch. The range of finds coming from it tell us this is something really special."

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Bip, bip, bip, BEEP! Dectectorist finds an entire town (www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/science/article4703212.ece?shareToken=35960831475c3dc968a14f37486ae2a0)