… isn’t gold – but sometimes it IS!
Christina here. Next week my latest book will be released and the idea for this story was sparked by the Galloway Hoard, a magnificent treasure found in Scotland in 2014. As soon as I heard about it, I was fascinated. I could only imagine how amazing it must feel to discover something like that. Despite having bought myself a metal detector a few years ago, I’ve never found anything other than a few rusty nails and a piece of iron pipe, so I decided I would have to fulfil this dream in my imagination instead. Add to this the fact that the hoard was of Viking origin and it seemed like serendipity! That’s when Hidden in the Mists started to take shape in my mind.
The hoard was probably buried around 900 AD and consists of various gold and silver items, as well as other more ordinary things. It’s one of the most incredible treasures ever found in Scotland and the richest one from the Viking age. I read all the articles about it when it was first revealed and couldn’t wait for it to go on display. That took a while as obviously the items had to be conserved and assessed first. Eventually, I was fortunate enough to see it in person, and I was enthralled by the many precious objects. My absolute favourite was a little gold pin in the shape of a bird which I had already used in another story, Whispers of the Runes. The hero of that book is a silversmith/jeweller and I had him make a pin just like this. I saw it as a bird of prey or a raven judging by its curved beak, but archaeologists felt it more resembled a flamingo. Most probably it’s a fantasy bird but either way, I just love how intricate it is, despite being so small!
Whenever something like the Galloway Hoard is found, it is ‘treasure trove’ and in Scotland it’s considered the property of the Crown. However, the person who discovers it (and also usually the landowner) is legally entitled to a reward so there is always the problem of who is going to pay for it. In this case, National Museums Scotland managed to raise the enormous sum needed to save these amazing items for the nation, and now anyone can have the privilege of seeing them. I think it was worth every penny!
The hoard had been buried in two layers with a sort of ‘decoy’ layer on top, presumably to fool anyone into thinking that was all there was. This contained armbands and ingots of silver. Underneath, however, was gravel that hid a lot more, both silver and gold. Very clever! Without modern metal detectors anyone digging there might have missed the best items.
Some of the objects had been buried in a tightly packed vessel with a lid. This was too fragile to go on display, but there was a 3D replica in the exhibition showing what it looked like. The outside was decorated with tigers and leopards and is of Central Asian metalwork. It was probably trade goods brought to Scotland from far very away. The vessel was not very big and it’s incredible how much had been crammed inside it. It contained items wrapped in leather, linen, wool and silk, fragments of which have been preserved enough for archaeologists to study them. That’s very rare but in this case, the metals had corroded and the copper leaching out created an environment that preserved the textiles where they touched the metal.
On the whole, the contents of the hoard are very unusual and although the treasure was hidden in the Viking era, the items themselves are a mixture of styles and look like they’ve been collected over many years. Apart from gold and silver, it also included more ordinary things made of glass or stone and even dirt. (No one knows why that was in there but it was definitely deliberate). Everything was wrapped as if precious to the owners and to them it must have been special. Heirlooms, or perhaps seen as magical or of sentimental value?
Most of the hoard was made up of silver armbands and ingots, and some of gold. The largest collection of armbands were of the broad band type, hammered into shape and decorated with punchwork in various patterns. Each design is different. Most of them had been flattened and/or folded and are of a type usually found around the Irish Sea dated to between 880-930 AD. When archaeologists studied them, they found that they were made out of carefully measured amounts of silver, eg. exactly two or three ounces in some cases. A standard weight, multiples of 26.6g (roughly one ounce) was known from the Viking age settlement in Dublin and this seems to have been used for the items in the hoard.
Some of the armbands had already been used as hacksilver – a piece was cut off as payment whenever necessary – so they were not merely for ornamentation. What fascinated me the most was that they appeared to have been divided into groups and marked as if they belonged to four different people. Four of the armbands had runic inscriptions and associated with each one was a distinct group of similarly folded or flattened armbands. One can only assume that ownership of the hoard had been shared and whoever hid it wanted everyone to remember what belonged to whom. Sadly, none of them ever came back for it.
The runes inscribed are all Anglo-Saxon, which was surprising for a Viking hoard. Anglo-Saxon runes were similar to Viking ones but had developed into its own style. It is thought that they signify parts of names, also of Anglo-Saxon origin. There was also an inscription on a different piece of hacksilver that was found close to the hoard – the Old English name EGGBREHT (Egbert). The Vikings controlled a lot of the territory around the Irish Sea and up the west coast and islands of Scotland in the 9th century. Galloway was sort of in between that and Anglo-Saxon Northumbria, but still connected to the sea. There was a lot of trade and settlement, as well as raiding.
The ingots too were of the standard weight and weighed six ounces each. These would have been easy to carry; it made sense to melt down silver objects that weren’t wanted or needed. The hoard includes two types – large bar-shaped ones and smaller finger-shaped ingots. They could have either been made into more armbands or cut and used as hacksilver.
There were other curious objects such as Anglo-Saxon brooches, glass beads, and this beautiful pendant made of gold filigree that encases a black stone. It is not a gemstone or special in any way, and yet it must have had specific meaning for the owner. Again, magic perhaps?
A rock carved crystal jar with gold on top – this was a beautiful object, not made locally but rather somewhere very far away like in the Middle East. It’s even possible that it was from the Roman Empire, in which case it would have been passed down the generations. Either way, it must have travelled quite a long way on one of the Viking trade routes. If only it could tell us about its journey!
An Anglo-Saxon cross was also part of the hoard. It could be that it had been stolen and was just going to be melted down. It had been beautifully restored by the conservator and showed decorations in the shape of symbols representing the four evangelists.
Conservation work on the treasure is still ongoing and there is much left to learn and discover about each individual item. It’s going to take years before everything has been studied in detail, but this unusual hoard has given archaeologists a lot to think about and it’s all very exciting. For me, it’s the human aspect that catches my imagination – why would someone hide all this treasure and why did they never return to claim it? What calamity befell them? We can only speculate and it made me want to come up with a story of my own about a similar hoard. Hidden in the Mists is the result.
Have you ever looked for treasure? If you found one, what type would you most like to come across?
