Late last year, one of the most significant early medieval hoards ever discovered in western Britain was revealed to the country in an almost unprecedented way – through reports from the Crown Court in Worcester. In November 2019, four men were found guilty of concealing, stealing, and selling a hoard of ‘Viking’ treasure that they had recovered illicitly on land near Leominster in Herefordshire four years earlier. They were sentenced to a combined jail term of more than 23 years, ranging from 12 months to ten years in length (see CA 359), and they are also subject to a ‘proceeds of crime’ hearing where assets and goods can be seized so that they do not profit from crime.
Rather than focus on this horrendously destructive heritage crime, this article will move away from the headlines, looking instead at what we currently know about the hoard and investigating the archaeology of the landscape associated with the find. It also looks towards a future where the hoard can be relocated to the county where it was once hidden, to be displayed and enjoyed by the public.
Object lessons
The small portion of the hoard recovered so far includes three gold ornaments, a silver ingot, and 30 silver coins – but photos recovered by police during their investigations suggest that, when complete, the hoard had contained several more ingots and around 300 coins. It is possible that the collection contained other objects too, but the quality of the recovered photos means that this is uncertain. The combination of intact ornaments, bullion, and a mixture of Anglo-Saxon, Frankish, and Islamic coins immediately suggests that this was a Viking hoard, and – as we will discuss in more detail below – the coin evidence indicates that it was deposited c.879, probably in connection with the actions of the so-called ‘great army’ in south-west Mercia.
