EXPERTS have unlocked the fascinating secrets of a Viking-age hoard discovered by a metal detectorist which is set to go on public display.
The 10th-century hoard of more than 100 objects, including gold, silver, jewellery, 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.
Painstaking cleaning, conservation and cutting-edge research over the past few years revealed the stories of some of the objects, including a unique lidded vessel wrapped in textiles too fragile to form part of the display (pictured).
3D models, taken from x-ray imaging, have enabled researchers to see beneath the textiles which have hidden it for more than 1000 years, giving them a glimpse of the decorated surface of the vessel, which features leopards, tigers and a Zoroastrian fire altar.
The decorations revealed that rather than being from the Carolingian (Holy Roman) Empire as expected, the metalwork is from Central Asia, while radiocarbon dating of the wool dates it to AD 680-780, pre-dating the Viking age 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.
“Instead, the decoration and design suggests that it is a piece of Central Asian metalwork from halfway round the known world.
“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.”
Galloway Hoard: Viking-age Treasure will open at NMS in Edinburgh, until September 12.
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