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Talnotrie Hoard

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9th-century mixed hoard in Scotland

Talnotrie Hoard
Createdc. 875–900AD
Period/cultureEarly medieval
Discovered1912
Talnotrie, Scotland
Discovered byMrs Gordon
Present locationNational Museums Scotland
Coordinates55°00′56″N 04°22′00″W / 55.01556°N 4.36667°W / 55.01556; -4.36667

The Talnotrie Hoard is a 9th-century mixed hoard of jewellery, coinage, metal-working objects and raw materials found in Talnotrie, Scotland, in 1912. Initially assumed to have belonged to a Northumbrian metal-worker, more recent interpretations associate its deposition with the activities of the Viking Great Army.

Discovery

View from Talnotrie Hill (2005), the area where the hoard was found

The hoard was discovered at Talnotrie in Kirkcudbrightshire, when a woman called Mrs Gordon was putting peat on the fire in her home and noticed some silver drop out from the peat. Her husband had cut the peat from the hillside near their home and later reported that the objects were in peat layers close to the "glacial clay below the peat". The hoard was published by Sir Herbert Maxwell in 1913.

Contents

The hoard consists of a mixed assemblage of coins, jewellery, metal-working objects and raw materials. Jewellery items in the hoard include two silver disc-headed pins, a separate pin-head, a niello strap-end and a gold finger-ring. Objects associated with metal-working include a lead weight inset with a piece of circular copper-alloy interlace, two oval silver wire loops, and a fragment of or unfinished cross. Raw materials include a piece of jet, a piece of unfinished agate, a piece of green glass and a substance similar to beeswax. There are also three clay spindle whorls. Coins associated with the hoard include six stycas, four pennies of Burgred of Mercia, one fragment of a Carolingian denier and two fragments of Islamic dirhams.

Acquisition and display

The hoard is in the collection of National Museums Scotland. In 2021 it was displayed as part of an exhibition on the Galloway Hoard.

Interpretation

Whilst the identity of the hoard's depositor/s is unknown, James Graham-Campbell suggested that it belonged to a Northumbrian metal-worker. However, it has been suggested that the hoard is more likely to be connected to Scandinavian presence and movement in the British Isles, and could even be connected to the Viking Great Army since objects in the assemblage have similarities to the assemblages of sites like the Viking winter camp at Torksey in Lincolnshire. It has even been suggested that the hoard could be connected to Viking leaders, such as Halfdan Ragnarsson or Ivar the Boneless. Halfdan made incursions into Strathclyde and Pictish areas c.874/5. Ivar, and his kinsman Olaf, captured Dumbarton Rock and campaigned in Strathclyde c.870/1. It has also been cited as "the earliest coin-dated hoard evidence for bullion-use in Scotland".

The hoard's date of concealment has been estimated based on the coins in the assemblage. The proposed dates vary from c.875 to c.900. The decorative motifs on the pins have been interpreted as part of a "distinctly Northumbrian development of the Trewhiddle style".

Gallery

  • Illustration of niello strap-end from the hoard (1913) Illustration of niello strap-end from the hoard (1913)
  • Illustration of pin heads (1913) Illustration of pin heads (1913)
  • Illustration of inlaid lead weight (1913) Illustration of inlaid lead weight (1913)
  • Illustration of one of the pair of pins (1913) Illustration of one of the pair of pins (1913)

References

  1. ^ Maxwell, Herbert. "Notes on a Hoard of Personal Ornaments, Implements, and Anglo-Saxon and Northumbrian Coins from Talnotrie, Kirkcudbrightshire." Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland. Vol. 47. 1913.
  2. ^ "National Museums of Scotland – Hoard". 20 September 2021. Archived from the original on 20 September 2021. Retrieved 20 September 2021.
  3. "Talnotrie | Canmore". canmore.org.uk. Retrieved 23 September 2021.
  4. ^ "Coin, unidentified". National Museums Scotland. Retrieved 22 September 2021.
  5. Graham-Campbell, James (1978). "The Viking-age silver and gold hoards of Scandinavian character from Scotland". Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland. 107: 114–135. doi:10.9750/PSAS.107.114.135. ISSN 2056-743X.
  6. Hinton, David Alban (2006). Gold and Gilt, Pots and Pins: Possessions and People in Medieval Britain. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-926454-4.
  7. ^ "Looting Scotland in the Viking Age | National Museums Scotland Blog". 22 September 2021. Archived from the original on 22 September 2021. Retrieved 22 September 2021.
  8. ^ Dawn, Hadley; Julian, Richards (27 May 2021). The Viking Great Army and the Making of England. Thames and Hudson Limited. ISBN 978-0-500-77635-3.
  9. Steinforth, Dirk H.; Rozier, Charles C. (17 May 2021). Britain and its Neighbours: Cultural Contacts and Exchanges in Medieval and Early Modern Europe. Routledge. ISBN 978-1-000-36537-5.
  10. Thompson, J D A (1956). Inventory of British Coin Hoards, AD 600–1500. London: Royal Numismatic Society. p. 132.
  11. Blackwell, Alice. A reassessment of the Anglo-Saxon artefacts from Scotland: material interactions and identities in early medieval northern Britain. Diss. University of Glasgow, 2018.

External links

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