25 August 2025 The Future is the Product of the Past

Secrets of the Galloway Hoard Revealed

Experts have uncovered fascinating secrets of a Viking Age hoard discovered by a metal detector to be presented to the public. A 10th-century treasure of over 100 items including gold, silver, jewelry, a rare Anglo-Saxon cross, and textiles, was found in a field in Dumfries and Galloway in 2014 and acquired by National Museums Scotland (NMS) in 2017.

The 3D model obtained through X-ray imaging allowed the researchers to see beneath the textiles that had been hidden for more than 1,000 years, thereby glimpsing the decorative surface of the vessel decorated with leopards, tigers, and Zoroastrian fire altars.

The ornamentation indicated that the metalwork is from Central Asia rather than the Carolingian (Holy Roman) Empire, as predicted, and radiocarbon analysis of the wool wrapping dates it to AD 680-780, predating the Viking period by up to 200 years.

Dr Martin Goldberg, principal curator of medieval archaeology and history at NMS, said: “This is only the third silver-gilt and decorated vessel to be found as part of a Viking-age hoard in the UK, and so we might have expected it to be like the other two.

“However, the 3D model reveals that the vessel is not from the Carolingian (Holy Roman) Empire of continental Europe as we’d expected based on other similar examples. Instead, the decoration and design suggests that it is a piece of Central Asian metalwork from halfway round the known world.

Viking age hoard. Photo: National Museums Scotland/PA
Viking age hoard. Photo: National Museums Scotland/PA

“What was revealed was decoration that is unlike the other two, they were made in a Christian context in the Carolingian empire probably sometime in the 9th century AD.

“Our vessel has non-Christian symbolism on it and in particular there is a central icon which is a Zoroastrian fire altar and Zoroastrianism was the state religion of the Sasanian empire, which is much further to the east in central

Asia, what was Persia and is modern day Iran, and there are leopards and tigers in the vegetation on the vessel and the whole thing just has a much different symbolism.

viking hoard
Viking age hoard. Photo: National Museums Scotland/PA

“It was quite a surprise, it’s really opened up that international picture.”< Dr Chris Breward, director of NMS, described the hoard as “probably the most significant find from the period of the Vikings in Britain or Ireland that we know of”.

The exhibition, which opens on Saturday, demonstrates how the trove was buried in four separate parcels: two of silver bullion and one consisting of a cluster of four lavishly designed silver “ribbon” arm-rings linked together and covering a little wooden box holding three gold pieces.

Galloway Hoard
National Museums Scotland/PA

The final parcel was a lidded, silver-gilt vase covered in layers of cloth and stuffed with expertly wrapped artifacts that looked like antiquities or heirlooms. They include beads, pendants, brooches, bracelets, and elaborate belt-set, a rock crystal jar, and other curios, often strung or wrapped with silk, as well as two mysterious balls of dirt containing tiny specks of gold.

It is unknown why the treasure, which contained artifacts belonging to four different owners, was buried, however, they were often concealed by persons under fear or stress in the goal of subsequently reclaiming them.

Research into the hoard, found by metal detectorist Derek McLennan, continues through a £1 million project led by NMS in partnership with the University of Glasgow.

The exhibition Galloway Hoard: Viking-age Treasure will be open at NMS in Chambers Street, Edinburgh, until September 12 when it will then tour to Kirkcudbright Galleries and Aberdeen Art Gallery.

National Museums Scotland

Related Articles

Using Algorithms, Researchers Reassemble Jewish Text Lost Centuries Ago

27 January 2022

27 January 2022

Using new technology, researchers were able to comb a 19th-century text for the original study of a Bible interpretation attributed...

Getting to Know Matar Kubilea

8 February 2021

8 February 2021

Hittite state’s, With its collapse in 1200-1190 BC, Anatolia entered a period of drift from holistic to dispersal. (The Hittite...

The Oldest Semicircular Classroom in the Greek World Unearthed in Sicily

21 April 2025

21 April 2025

In a remarkable archaeological breakthrough in southern Sicily, an international team of researchers has uncovered an extraordinary ancient classroom that...

Millefiori Glass Plateques From the 5th Century AD Discovered in the Ancient Lycian City of Myra

9 September 2024

9 September 2024

One of the six leading cities of ancient Lycia and the birthplace of Santa Claus (or Sinterklaas in Dutch), the...

‘Australia’s silk road’: the quarries of Mithaka Country dating back 2100 years

4 April 2022

4 April 2022

In Queensland’s remote Channel Country of red dirt and gibber rock, traditional owners and archaeologists have unearthed what researchers have...

Ancient Roman coin thought to be fake -certainly authentic and proves the existence of ‘forgotten’ leader Sponsian, study claims

26 November 2022

26 November 2022

History is littered with artifacts that were later discovered to be forgeries, but the opposite can also occur. A new...

Anatolia’s first company was founded 4000 years ago with 15 kilos of gold!

26 May 2024

26 May 2024

A 4,000-year-old tablet found in Kültepe shows that the first company in Anatolia was established by 12 people with 15...

Archaeologists find a 5,000-year-old piece of wood in Orkney, which they describe as “astonishing”

10 August 2021

10 August 2021

Archaeologists continue to make surprising discoveries in Orkney. Although organic materials are quite difficult to find, archaeologists have found a...

Drought accelerated Hittite Empire’s collapse

9 February 2023

9 February 2023

Researchers have offered new insight into the abrupt collapse of the  Hittite Empire in the Late Bronze Age, with an...

Archaeologists Uncover lost Indigenous Settlement of Sarabay, Florida

9 June 2021

9 June 2021

The University of North Florida archaeological team is now quite sure that they have uncovered Sarabay, a lost Indigenous northeast...

Palau’s green pyramids: could be a geo-archaeological project

19 February 2022

19 February 2022

Archaeologists from Kiel University’s Institute for Ecosystem Research (CAU) and the German Archaeological Institute (DAI) studied the so-called “Pyramids of...

Hidden Archaeological Treasures from Cologne Cathedral

25 January 2024

25 January 2024

An area of around 4,000 square meters (43,055 square feet) is being discovered beneath the Cologne Cathedral, the largest Gothic...

Ancient rituals recorded on 2,000-year-old bamboo slips deciphered

18 December 2023

18 December 2023

Scholars of China’s Tsinghua University have deciphered five documents recorded on bamboo slips dating back to the Warring States period...

Freshwater and marine shells used as ornaments 30,000 years ago discovered in Spain

7 June 2023

7 June 2023

In Malaga’s Cueva de Ardales, up to 13 freshwater and marine shells that were carefully transformed by humans between 25,000...

Drone Mapping Reveals Shockingly Huge Size of 3,000-Year-Old Caucasus Settlement

11 January 2025

11 January 2025

Using drone mapping, an academic from Cranfield University in the UK has revealed that Dmanisis Gora, a 3,000-year-old mountainside fortress...