Discovered in 2014 in Balmaghie, in the south-west of Scotland, the Galloway treasure is one of the most important repositories of Viking objects found in the British Isles since the 19th century. Identified by a happy "detectorist" before being authenticated, acquired and restored by the National Museum of Scotland, the imposing treasure has been on display since Saturday to the public for the first time since its discovery. However, despite what had been suggested seven years ago, this extraordinary collection of a hundred objects buried around the year 900 would not be Viking booty, buried with the idea of being hoarded more or less long term, but a Christian cache. Or even a double cache, as clever as it is precious.
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Finely worked, round, quatrefoil or painted fibulae, torques and arm rings of the finest work, a spectacular silver pectoral cross, ingots by the dozen, a long gold bird pin, silverware from the most beautiful shine, exceptional jewels, elements of silk, the remains of a wooden box, vestiges in wool, leather and even even a crystal jug set in gold,… This excess, this excess of luxury concentrated in one place is enough to make you dizzy, not only by the astronomical quantity of objects gathered, but also by their great variety. Between Christian liturgical material, everyday objects, honorary Viking adornments, this mixture of disparate pieces is intriguing. Was this the booty, accumulated during a lifetime, ofa brilliant raider of the North Seas? As tempting as it is, the hypothesis of a Viking treasure has been faltering since the research carried out in recent years by Scottish scientists. Despite its regional proximity to the areas occupied by the Scandinavians, several details of the treasure indeed suggest that its last owner was not a Viking but, rather, a Christian.
1/5 - An assortment of objects buried under the first layer of the treasure.
National Museum of Scotland
2/5 - The pectoral cross of the Galloway treasure before restoration.
National Museum of Scotland
3/5 - The pectoral cross of the Galloway treasure after restoration.
National Museum of Scotland
4/5 - A pin decorated with a niello gold bird.
National Museum of Scotland
5/5 - The inscription “Egbert” engraved in Anglo-Saxon runes.
National Museum of Scotland
A second treasure buried under the first
As Scottish archaeologists recalled before the opening of the exhibition dedicated to the Galloway treasure, one of the first astonishing elements of this valuable deposit is how it was buried, since the objects had been buried in two separate and overlapping layers. The first, located just 30 cm from the surface, consisted of an assortment of silver ingots and a Christian pectoral cross. Also in silver, it was decorated at its ends with the figure of the four evangelists, traced in gold and niello. An already rather exceptional treasure was in fact a decoy stored on an 8 cm layer of gravel which concealed the true riches of the site: almost double the silver objects, as well as a surprising variety of gold relics.In the middle of this second treasure, four of the silver ingots - flattened or broken Viking arm rings - unearthed were engraved with Anglo-Saxon rather than Scandinavian runes, and which denoted names in Old English, such as Egbert. Objects that the Scandinavians would rather have recast than kept as they are.
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Above all, the most incredible of the pieces kept in this lower treasure was a silver vase, wrapped in three layers of cloth.
X-ray inspected so as not to have to undo and damage the fragile textiles that surround it, this vase has greatly surprised the British specialists who have studied it in recent years.
"The vase is not from Carolingian Europe, as we initially thought based on similar models,"
Martin Goldberg, chief curator of the museum's department of medieval archeology
,
said in a statement. National of Scotland.
“Instead, its decoration is loaded with leopards, tigers and Zoroastrian religious symbols, indicating that this piece of goldsmith's work originates from Central Asia, that is, from the other side of the world. known ”
.
Also adorned with burning altars, this piece of goldsmith's work would present a Persian style typical of the 6th - 8th century.
It was also surrounded by at least one piece of wool dated, carbon 14, from the years 680-780, that is to say before the beginning of the Viking Age, and almost one or two centuries before the burial of the vase.
1/4 - The "Persian" vase from Galloway's treasure, with what remains of the three layers of fabric that surrounded it.
National Museum of Scotland
2/4 - A 3D reconstruction of the silver vase.
Historic Environment Scotland
3/4 - The small crystal vessel set in gold was kept inside the silver vase, wrapped in silk.
Perhaps intended for the liturgy, it could date from late Antiquity.
National Museum of Scotland
4/4 - The touchstone, also preserved in the silver vase.
National Museum of Scotland
Already extraordinary in terms of its qualities and its course, the vase also contained an abundance of small precious pendants, including a long fragment of black schist - a touchstone - framed with gold antlers, and which would have made the object of much attention in its time.
"It's as if it were a relic or a family treasure,"
Martin Goldberg remarked in March at a press conference. Another astonishing object preserved in the vase was a small vessel of rock crystal, covered with gold and wrapped in silk; undoubtedly a liturgical object inherited from late Antiquity, and perhaps originating in Italy, even Rome. Finally, in the bottom of the vase, pieces ofcloth and small balls of earth which had been preciously preserved.
"They contain small amounts of gold and broken bone
,
"
said Martin Goldberg.
"Our theory is that these would be secondary relics which came into contact with sacred places and which were brought back to Scotland on long journeys
.
"
Future analyzes could make it possible to delimit the region from which these pieces of land come, hopes the Scottish curator.
Seven years after its discovery, the perfect knowledge of the Galloway treasure is not yet entirely certain, although good progress has been made, in particular in the restoration of the objects. Rather than a Viking treasure, archaeologists are therefore now considering the trail of a monastic origin, with Whithorn Abbey in their sights, some thirty kilometers south of Balmaghie. Around 900, the region was at the crossroads between the Danish Danelaw, the declining Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Northumbria, and growing England, as well as within the area of influence of the Scandinavians established in Dublin.
"The location of the treasure and the nature of some of the material suggest that it was probably buried by Church members of Northumbria who felt threatened, probably by the Vikings"
, summarized in
The Independent
the medievalist historian Alex Woolf. If the fate of its owners remains unknown, the treasure has reached us almost intact, more than a thousand years later, in a marvelous state of preservation. Visitors to the National Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh will be able to admire the various pieces until September 12; after which, like the Vikings of yesteryear, the treasure will embark on a tour to Kirkcudbright and then to Aberdeen.