below Anglo-Saxon metalwork recovered from inside a lidded vessel in the Galloway Hoard, including seven brooches, a pair of multi-hinged straps, a ‘relic’ pendant made from a bead enclosed in silver and a perforated coin (bottom left), and a rock crystal sphere in a broken silver pendant-fitting (bottom centre).

Secrets of the Galloway Hoard

With a large amount of gold and Anglo-Saxon objects otherwise unseen in Scotland, the Viking Age hoard discovered in Galloway in 2014 is unusual in a number of ways. What do we know so far about this complex hoard? And what more might its contents tell us? As the Galloway Hoard goes on display in a new exhibition and research continues, Martin Goldberg explores the answers, and the new questions, the enigmatic assemblage offers up.

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Minerva Magazine

June 12, 2021

The Galloway Hoard is the richest collection of rare and unique Viking Age objects ever found in Britain or Ireland. Buried around AD 900, the hoard brings together a stunning variety of materials and treasures from Ireland, the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms, and as far away as Asia. This was a time when, following Alfred the Great’s victories over the Danes, the Anglo-Saxon king’s successors were laying the foundations of medieval England, and when, further north, the Kingdom of Alba was emerging. Galloway, where the hoard was found, was once part of the Anglo-Saxon Kingdom of Northumbria. On the western coast of southern Scotland, it has easy connections across the Irish Sea. But as the Gallowa

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