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July 19, 2007
Viking hoard! Loot! Metal detectorists!
A very important new discovery is on display now at the British Museum - an intact hoard discovered by metal detector early this year is already up.
The Harrogate Hoard, which was promptly reported by the finders David and Andrew Whelan to their local Finds Liaison Officer (FLO), contains a mixture of different precious metal objects, including coins, complete ornaments, ingots (bars) and chopped-up fragments known as hack-silver.It also reveals a remarkable diversity of cultural contacts in the medieval world, with objects coming from as far apart as Afghanistan in the East and Ireland in the West, as well as Russia, Scandinavia and continental Europe.
The 650-some pieces of silver were inside a Carolingian (early 9th C France) gilt-silver bowl. There are pictures of the bowl and a chain with a pin on its end. The early information (remember, it's only been out of the ground since January of this year!) is that it was buried in the early tenth century. Hoards, as wonderful as they are for us, probably reflect the sad truth that whoever doesn't come back to claim a hoard died. Violently. For instance, in the Anglo-Saxon conquest of the Viking kingdom of Northumbria (York) around 925.
We can always assign one date to hoards with coins, a terminus post quem, a "point after which." We can know that the hoard had to have been buried after the manufacture of the most recent coin in the collection. However, that doesn't tell us how soon after that coins manufacture the hoard was buried. Think of your change bowl or penny collection - if it was excavated tomorrow would it have a 2007 penny? A 2006 state quarter? A buffalo nickel? That's one reason hoard-dating is not perfect. So, you find the latest dateable coin and then try to line it up with a time of unrest that might encourage someone to bury wealth - and might be unrestful enough that the hoarder never made it back.
An interview with the detectorists.
About the best picture I've found so far of the hoard spread out.
Really great unpacking the hoard sequence at the BBC, via Cronaca.
Posted by CrankyProfessor at July 19, 2007 8:49 AM
Comments
Wow! So exciting, especially the bit about the coin with Rex Totius Britanniae on it!
And I loved this in the interview:
He said he was not sure what to do with the money but being from Yorkshire he was financially cautious and would probably invest it.
David continued: "We don't need owt. We've got all we want."
Oh that is *so* Yorkshire. I heart Yorkshire.
Posted by: Dr. Virago at July 19, 2007 3:17 PM
Cranky Professor:
So the Dark ages weren't so dark and communications between the various parts of the Eurasian continent still thrived albeit with highly reduced intercourse
xavier
Posted by: xavier ![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.crankyprofessor.com/nav-commenters.gif)
at July 19, 2007 11:03 PM