Scottish Viking Hoard

VIKING HOARD ALERT! Not, like, the immanent threat of hoards of Vikings coming to invade, but the other sort of hoard — as in, the stashed treasures from Viking-age Scandinavia and Britain, buried for safekeeping but never reclaimed by their owners. Hundreds of such hoards have been discovered in modern times, many by amateur treasure-seekers using metal detectors. The one featured here today is extra special.

Known as the Galloway Hoard, it was only found in 2014 in southeastern Scotland, but is the richest and most eclectic depository of the Viking age.

Really, the article from _Archaeology_ magazine from which this post is taken is worth a read, but this photo gets at some of the unusual features from the hoard assembled in 900 by unknown people. I wish I could talk to them and get their stories!

* The band of silver rings would have been worn by Vikings on their arms. Some of the rings are bound together, and have runes with personal names hastily etched in metal on the inside. Strangely, the runes and names seem to be Anglo-Saxon, and not Viking-style. Did some Anglo-Saxons make a pact of convenience with a group of Vikings?

* The silver cross is also Anglo-Saxon — there are Celtic interlace and symbols of the four Gospel evangelists adorning it. In 900 the Vikings in Britain were pagan, but Galloway was part of an Anglo-Saxon Christianized area, surrounded by Vikings

* A carved rose-crystal surrounded in gold and turned into a perfume holder. The rock dates to the Ancient Roman era, but the piece was fashioned much later and has a small inscription attaching it to a Christian bishop

* Finally, a ball of mud. Special because ones like it were found in the Christian holy lands around Jerusalem and kept as personal momentos

The Galloway Hoard’s contents showcase a world built out of both extremely local and far-flung cultures across an enormous expanse of time. What desperate conditions account for the burial of such an astonishing collection?

Theories, anyone?