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Over a decade after its discovery, the Viking Age Galloway Hoard continues to give up its secrets, following the translation of a runic inscription on one of its arm-rings, offering new insights into the assemblage’s early medieval ownership.
Buried c.AD 900, the Galloway Hoard comprised an eclectic array of gold and silver items, from such diverse locations as Ireland, the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms, and central Asia (see CA 376 and 417). Since its discovery in 2014, and its acquisition three years later by National Museums Scotland (NMS), its contents have been carefully explored.
The upper parcel of the hoard contained many silver arm rings understood as Viking Age objects. However, four from a lower parcel were inscribed with Anglo-Saxon runes, including common elements of Anglo-Saxon names, suggestive of ownership.
The largest of the inscribed arm-rings was different. It was partially unfolded and bore an enigmatic inscription, also in Anglo-Saxon runes, which researchers initially read as DIS IS I−IGNAF. This puzzlingly included words with no known correspondence in any language spoken in early medieval Britain or Ireland.
This remained a mystery for years, but new analysis under a microscope has revealed that the final rune, F, had a dot or ‘punct’ on each side. This final rune was in fact an abbreviation of its own: the name of the F-rune is feoh, meaning ‘wealth’ or ‘property’.
Dr Martin Goldberg, Principal Curator of Medieval Archaeology and History at NMS, explained the find’s significance: ‘Isolating that final word meant that the five letters before it (I−IGNA) began to make more sense, and could be an odd spelling of higna, meaning “community”. One reading for the inscription could be, “this is the community’s wealth”.’
It was previously suggested that the hoard was the collective property of four owners. Now, however, it seems that one portion of the contents should instead be acknowledged as the shared wealth of a much larger body. ‘This was a group of material that had been brought together by multiple people, probably over a long period of time; it had that sense of community about it,’ reflected Martin.
The translation comes at the conclusion of a three-year research project, ‘Unwrapping the Galloway Hoard’, supported by the UKRI Arts and Humanities Research Council. In a separate venture, items from the hoard, including the arm-rings, are currently on display at the South Australian Museum, Adelaide, with the international touring exhibition Treasures of the Viking Age: The Galloway Hoard.
Text: Rebecca Preedy
