The Silverdale Hoard, one of the largest Viking Age hoards ever discovered in the UK, is set to star in a year-long display at York’s JORVIK Viking Centre.
The exhibition will open 8 February 2022. To book a ticket, visit jorvikvikingcentre.co.uk.
Dating back to around AD 900, the hoard was unearthed near Silverdale, North Lancashire, by metal-detectorist Darren Webster in 2011.
This incredible collection of 201 silver artefacts comprises 27 coins – a mixture of Anglo-Saxon, Islamic, and Frankish types, including coins of Alfred the Great (871-899) and his godson, Guthrum – 10 complete arm-rings, 14 ingots, bossed brooch fragments, and 141 pieces of hacksilver.
‘Hoards provide historians with a snapshot of society at the time they were hidden,’ says Christine McDonnell, Head of Collections and Archives at the JORVIK Viking Centre. ‘This hoard, for example, features a coin minted in the name of Harthacnut – a ruler whose name was previously lost to history.’
To mark the arrival of the Silverdale Hoard – on loan from Lancashire County Museum Service – Dr Gareth Williams of the British Museum will present a live-streamed talk delving into the find’s significance, and detailing how it was conserved. This talk will be held as part of the free online festival That JORVIK Viking Thing, running from 19 – 27 February 2022.
Visitors will also have the chance to enjoy face-to-face Viking encounters during the JORVIK Viking Festival, taking place from 28 May until 1 June 2022.
You can find out more about the Silverdale Hoard in a past issue of Current Archaeology magazine: Viking hoards: buried wealth of the Norse North West.
