The well-preserved ring was found by a retired firefighter. Noonans MayfairSeveral years ago, metal detectorist Mark Sell was searching for treasure at a field in Norfolk, England. He had scanned this particular area before, though he hadnt found anything. But just before dusk, his detector emitted a faint signal.About nine inches below the surface, he found a gold ring with five gemstones. Dating to the late 12th or early 13th century, the jewelry likely belonged to a medievalbishop.When it went to auction, officials expected it to fetch between roughly $19,000 and $23,000, according to a statement from Noonans Mayfair, the London-based auction house. It sold for about $24,000 on Wednesday. The auction house says it's "extremely rare" to find a ring of this kind in such good condition. Noonans MayfairSell, a retired firefighter, found the ring in the village of Shipdham. The town had been well established by the time of the Norman Conquest in 1066, whenWilliam the Conqueror took the throne, as Laura Smith, a jewelry expert at Noonans, says in the statement.In 1086, William commissioned theDomesday Book, which recorded all of Britains lands and property ownersnow the oldest government record in the United KingdomsNational Archives. Shipdham was among Englands largest settlements at the time, and it was extensively detailed in the Domesday Book, Smith adds.The village has a rich religious history. The Domesday Book states that Shipdham had a church and plentiful woodlands in the 11th century. During the reign ofHenry III in the 13th century, theBishop of Ely built a mansion in Shipdham, complete with a moat. The bishop, namedHugh de Northwold, served between 1229 and 1254. According to the lot listing, experts think he was the owner of the ring. Experts think the ring belonged toHugh de Northwold, a 13th-century bishop. Noonans MayfairThe ring features a principal cabochon stone, or a rounded, polished center gem. In this case, the center stone is a sapphire, and its surrounded by two emeralds and two stones that are either garnets or rubies.I was amazed to see a thin line of gold in the clod of mud that I had dug up, and as I wiped away the mud, I could see the bezel of a medieval gold jeweled ring, says Sell in the statement. I could also see that the ring was complete with all of the original jewels still in place and was in pristine condition.According to the lot listing, its extremely rare to find a ring of this kind with all of its original gemstones in such good condition. The item resembles similar pieces belonging to other medieval religious leaders, such as a large sapphire, ruby and emerald ring owned by the 13th-century archbishopWalter de Gray.After unearthing the artifact, Sell shared it with the owner of the Norfolk field. He then reported it to thelocal finds liaison officer, who is part of the U.K.sPortable Antiquities Scheme, as NPRs Manuela Lpez Restrepo reports. Run by the British Museum andAmgueddfa Cymru-Museum Wales, the program documents items found by members of the public in a database.The ring was sold on March 26 as part of Noonans Mayfairs Jewellery, Silver and Objects of Vertu auction. Sell and the landowner will share the profits. Other items in the sale include a gold ring from the 15th century and a gold and garnet ring from the 13th century.In recent months, several other notable rings have been unearthed in the U.K., including a 1,000-year-old kite-shaped ring found in Scotland and a 17th-century gold ring discovered in Lancashire.Get the latest stories in your inbox every weekday.Filed Under: Archaeology, Artifacts, Auctions, British History, Cool Finds, England, History, Jewelry, Religion, Religious History