Galloway Hoard: Where Did the Silver Come From?

Abstract

• The Galloway Hoard is dominated by silver. Cutting-edge science can now trace sources of silver with greater accuracy than ever before. What might this reveal about Viking trading and raiding? The Viking Age is known for its silver treasures. The Galloway Hoard, buried around AD 900, was discovered by metal-detecting in 2014 in Kirkcudbrightshire. It was allocated to National Museums Scotland in 2017 after a successful fundraising campaign supported by the National Heritage Memorial Fund and the Art Fund. While famously containing a mix of materials, from textiles to gold, the bulk of the Hoard is made up of silver. Where did all this silver come from? There were no local sources being worked at that time, so it must have come from elsewhere. Just how far it travelled has been a subject of debate for many years. In this live online event, National Museums Scotland Galloway Hoard Researcher Adrián Maldonado will join Jane Kershaw from the University of Oxford to explain how a collaboration between cutting-edge science and archaeology can reveal the sources of Viking-age silver in the Galloway Hoard. What might these sources tell us about Viking raiding and trading? And how did this silver come to be buried in south-west Scotland? The event includes a live Q&A chaired by writer and broadcaster Sally Magnusson.