The Viking hoard...

As a stacker I'm interested in all types of silver; I don't obsess over it but I find it interesting. When that interest combines with my love of history I'm doubly interested which is what happened recently when I had the chancer to visit the Ashmolean Museum in the city of Oxford, England on a recent vacation to the United Kingdom. It lies within a building erected between 1678 and 1683 and is a completely distracting way to spend a day. In fact one could easily spend longer than that however I didn't have the luxury.

Amongst the many interesting exhibits was this little hoard of silver which was found in Oxfordshire, near Watlington, by a metal-detectorist in 2015. Unfortunately for him the hoard was declared treasure under the Treasure Act 1996 and as such now lies behind glass in the Ashmolean. I wonder if he was compensated?

This important find is the first large Viking hoard to be found in Oxfordshire and it is thought to have ben buried around the year 879-880, a long long time ago. The hoard is typical of most viking hoards in that it contains silver coins and ingots commonly known as hack-silver as well as some jewellery items however also included a rare oddity being the fragment of gold in the centre of shot. The presence of this gold is of course a mystery however it would have had tremendous value at the time of its burial. Unfortunately my images make it all look like gold due to the low-lighting in the exhibit case however it is not.

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The presence of this hoard confirms Viking activity in the area around southern Oxfordshire and it is hypothesised that the hoard is conclusive evidence of the movement of the Great Viking Army following it's defeat by King Alfred the Great at Edington, Wiltshire in the year 878. The images above shows the small gold fragment ringed in green and a close up of it showing how it is decorated.

I spent a long time looking at the coins and ingots contemplating the story that quite obviously starts with the collection of the hoard by a Viking to the subsequent burial of the hoard. I wondered if it was buried by the person who collected it thinking they would come back after the fighting was done to claim it? Was that wealthy Viking dis-possessed of the hoard by another Viking or the Anglo-Saxons they were fighting? Was it the booty, spoils of war, collected by a band of Vikings or Anglo-Saxons...Deserters maybe? Was it given to a messenger to take back to a place of safety by one person or another on either side? Maybe it was found buried with it's former owner, as both Anglo-Saxon's and Vikings would do, and removed by a grave robber? Of course we will never know.

Here you can see an image I took of a small information board beside the display cabinet showing the Anglo-Saxon kingdom's of Mercia and Wessex, the Viking stronghold of Cirencester (which I also visited) and the location of where the hoard was found near Watlington in 2015. I think it's completely feasible that one of the Viking's carried it with him (It wouldn't take up much room when bundled in a small bag or sack), and that either he, or someone else who removed it from the Vikings possession, buried it thinking to come back later. Quite obviously that didn't happen. I find it fascinating to think about the possibilities, to imagine what the people who played parts in the story of this Viking hoard and indeed in the history that rolled out in those years.

I often refer to my little stack of silver as a hoard or treasure however mine has nothing on the significance and value of the Watlington hoard. It was such a great day at the Ashmolean Museum and I urge anyone heading to Oxford to go there and visit even for just a few hours. I have some other interesting items to write about so will roll them out over time.

Viking image source