Cumbria Naturally
  • Home
  • Blog
  • My Books
    • Cumbrian Contrasts
    • A Lakeland Experience >
      • Introduction
      • Derwent
      • Langdale
      • Ullswater
      • Kentdale
    • About Scout Scar
    • Atlantic Odyssey
  • Other Writing
    • What Larks!
    • Further - Explore Shetland
    • Autumn Migration
    • Rydal and Nab Scar
    • Perspectives
    • The River Kent
    • Wings
  • Gallery
  • Contact

The Galloway Hoard at Kirkcudbright Galleries

26/5/2022

0 Comments

 
Picture
Odin’s ravens are poised  to fly  at dawn and scour the world to bring back news to the All Father.  We sit on Odin’s throne beneath  his ravens, Huginn and Munnin,  Old Norse for thought and memory. We’ll need both in contemplation of the Galloway Hoard displayed at Kirkudbright Galleries.  We’ll need curiosity and a willingness to consider afresh how Anglo-Saxon and Viking cultures interacted  in Galloway in  turbulent times.  


​The Galloway Hoard was buried  between AD 880 and AD 930, near Kirkcudbright, on glebe-lands belonging to the Church.  Hidden perhaps at a time of imminent danger,  discovered by a detectorist  in 2014.and now presented for the world to wonder at and admire.  Who gathered together these artefacts and heirlooms in the 10th century AD? Who made them, cherished them, owned them at various times?  
When The Galloway Hoard  is discovered after it has lain undisturbed for a millennium  the Queen’s Lord Treasurer’s Remembrancer has to decide  who owns ownerless property.   The National Museum of Scotland is given six months to raise nearly £2 million to save it for the nation.   That sum goes to the finder.  Six frantic months of fund raising to save The Galloway Hoard for Scotland.  Urgency brought forth a series of lectures and  sequential research videos, The Unwrapping of the Galloway Hoard.   The first glimpse shows an earthy  decoy layer of Hiberno-Scandinavian broadband arm-rings, Anglo-Saxon silver in the form of ingots, used as currency, an Anglo-Saxon  name Egbert stamped  as if to identify his property when different bundles could be reclaimed. And there are Anglo-Saxon runes.   There’s a silver pectoral cross wrapped in a chain worn around the neck of the owner, probably a bishop.  Animal symbols of the four Evangelists appear in late Anglo-Saxon  style, decorated with black niello and gold leaf.  Why was this precious pectoral cross presented in the decoy layer and not more carefully hidden?  
Beneath a layer of gravel was a second, richer layer of material.  There’s a silver-gilt treasure pot and lid, filled to the brim with artefacts each  carefully wrapped in textiles that have fused and caused corrosion in contact with metals. Textiles  allow carbon dating as gold and silver do not.   There are five  unique Anglo-Saxon  disc brooches unlike anything previously found in Scotland.  Quatrefoil brooches, one with a figure blowing a horn.  Objects were wrapped in leather, wool, linen and silk- silk that can only have come from China and the Silk Road.  There are artefacts in rock crystal that may be from Roman times.   Colourful glass beads worn over time  suggest they were precious to their owners perhaps through several generations.  Individually wrapped and carefully placed within the silver-gilt  lidded pot are earth balls the size of marbles. Analysis reveals they contain tiny fragments of gold and bone, holy relics from Christian sites perhaps.
 Paradox surrounds the  fate of The Galloway Hoard.  All that is precious in the hoard is accumulated  over some time.   Danger threatens  and the hoard is hidden in urgency and secrecy. Time stand still for a thousand years  but below ground there’s an earth-change into something rich and strange.  In 2014 a detectorist unearths the hoard, hides it overnight  to ensure no one else finds it. Ownership is challenged.  In the frantic months of fund-raising time races away and now the hoard is shown across the world, publicising it in all its wonder.  We learn, and unlearn.  The story will change again in the light of the latest research.  Knowledge is elusive and evolves, is challenged,  and archaeologists must conserve these objects for a time when science will reshape the story .  The next hoard to be discovered may give more context to The Galloway Hoard. 
0 Comments

Your comment will be posted after it is approved.


Leave a Reply.

    Picture

    Author

    Jan Wiltshire is a nature writer living in Cumbria. She also explores islands and coast and the wildlife experience. (See Home and My Books)

    Archives

    June 2025
    May 2025
    April 2025
    March 2025
    February 2025
    January 2025
    December 2024
    November 2024
    October 2024
    September 2024
    August 2024
    July 2024
    June 2024
    May 2024
    April 2024
    March 2024
    February 2024
    January 2024
    December 2023
    November 2023
    October 2023
    September 2023
    August 2023
    July 2023
    June 2023
    May 2023
    April 2023
    March 2023
    February 2023
    January 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    January 2015
    November 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    September 2012
    July 2012
    June 2012
    November 2010
    August 2010
    July 2010
    April 2010
    January 2010
    November 2009
    January 2009
    January 2004

    Categories

    All
    A Local Patch
    Birdlife
    Butterflies And Moths
    Flowers
    Locations
    Views
    Walks
    Weather
    WIldlife

    RSS Feed

Website
Home
Blog
Gallery
Contact



​Cookie Policy
My Books
  • Intro - My books
  • ​Cumbrian Contrasts
  • A Lakeland Experience
  • About Scout Scar
  • Atlantic Odyssey
    ​
Other Writing
  • Intro - Other Writing
  • What Larks!
  • Further - Explore Shetland
  • Autumn Migration
  • Rydal and Nab Scar
  • Perspectives
  • The River Kent
  • Wings
Jan Wiltshire - Cumbria Naturally
© Jan Wiltshire 2022 All rights reserved
Website by Treble3