*Ø* Blogmanac | Viking treasure: The Cuerdale Hoard
[Following yesterday's piece on Viking raids on Britain, I thought perhaps you might find this yarn from 1840 interesting]
At Cuerdale, near Preston, Lancashire, England, the local people had an ancient tradition that there was a treasure somewhere in that vicinity. It had been said from time immemorial that if you stood on the south bank of the River Ribble at Walton le Dale, looking up river towards Ribchester, you would be within sight of England’s richest treasure. For centuries people had searched for the fabled treasure, often using divining methods such as forked willow or hazel sticks and silver chains.
Then, on this very wet May 15th in 1840, workmen walking home from repairing the embankment on the south side of the river marvellously noticed a wooden box exposed by a slump of the rain-sodden earth. The box contained a leaden casket, which in turn held a massive hoard (nearly 40 kilograms, or 88 pounds) of something highly prized by Vikings because they had virtually no mineral deposits of their own – silver.
The landowner's bailiff made certain that almost the entire hoard was secured, and the labourers, who must have been very honest, were each allowed to retain one coin. At an inquest on August 15 of that year it was declared ‘treasure trove’, the property of Queen Victoria in right of her Duchy of Lancaster, which handed it over to the British Museum for examination before it was distributed to more than 170 lucky recipients. Fortunately, most of the Cuerdale find was allocated to the British Museum where it remains.
The hoard was dated to around 905 and contained coins from as far afield as Afghanistan. The Cuerdale Hoard included 8,500 pieces of silver, including 350 ingots, weighing 36 kilograms, as well as silver neck rings from Russia and from France, a very fine gilded Carolingian buckle. Some of the coins were of Arab and Byzantine origin. Much of the other material is typically Irish or Hiberno-Viking in form and decoration.
In an article in the Numismatic Gazette (December 1966), numismatist M Banks put forward the suggestion that the hoard was not even buried by Vikings, although it was Viking treasure, or much of it was. Banks suggested that the Cuerdale Hoard might have been a gift to English churches suffering persecution in the areas, known as the Danelaw, occupied by pagan Vikings. Since so many of the coins were apparently minted across the Channel, said Banks, they were probably a contribution from the Frankish Christians to their English brothers. Many such mysteries surround the Cuerdale trove.
Other Viking hoards have been found in the British Isles, such as the Halton Moor Hoard dating from the 11th century, but this was the largest trove of Viking silver found outside Russia. The coins found with the Cuerdale Hoard reveal that it must have been buried in the years between 905 and 910, shortly after the expulsion of the Vikings from Dublin in 902.
Silver formed the basis of currency in Viking times and was often buried in times of unrest, perhaps giving us the reason for this treasure’s presence for almost nine centuries on the south bank of the River Ribble. However, the Cuerdale Hoard and other treasures of its kind might have been buried for religious reasons (though the presence of coins bearing crosses would militate against this argument), or as a strange form of ostentation. In the 13th-century Egil's Saga, the hero Egil Skallagrimsson does just that, hiding his hoard to provide a lasting talking point for other people. This kind of ostentatious destruction of wealth is paralleled in other cultures, even in the modern West – perhaps you’ve even noticed.
More
And more
Top Ten treasures in the British Museum
Viking links
Pip Wilson's articles are available for your publication, on application. Further details
(Oh, yeah, belated happy birthday to the British Museum ... 250 years old on June 7. More)
* Ø * Ø * Ø *
Museum's broken treasure not just any old shit
Yep, that's the headline used by The Guardian newspaper ina piece on a fossilized Viking turd (coprolite)in a British museum that recently came to grief. Read about it here.
* Ø * Ø * Ø *
By the way, my emails are still down, now two and a half days. There will be no ezines sent on June 9 and until my ISP get's its coprolites together.
[Following yesterday's piece on Viking raids on Britain, I thought perhaps you might find this yarn from 1840 interesting]
At Cuerdale, near Preston, Lancashire, England, the local people had an ancient tradition that there was a treasure somewhere in that vicinity. It had been said from time immemorial that if you stood on the south bank of the River Ribble at Walton le Dale, looking up river towards Ribchester, you would be within sight of England’s richest treasure. For centuries people had searched for the fabled treasure, often using divining methods such as forked willow or hazel sticks and silver chains.
Then, on this very wet May 15th in 1840, workmen walking home from repairing the embankment on the south side of the river marvellously noticed a wooden box exposed by a slump of the rain-sodden earth. The box contained a leaden casket, which in turn held a massive hoard (nearly 40 kilograms, or 88 pounds) of something highly prized by Vikings because they had virtually no mineral deposits of their own – silver.
The landowner's bailiff made certain that almost the entire hoard was secured, and the labourers, who must have been very honest, were each allowed to retain one coin. At an inquest on August 15 of that year it was declared ‘treasure trove’, the property of Queen Victoria in right of her Duchy of Lancaster, which handed it over to the British Museum for examination before it was distributed to more than 170 lucky recipients. Fortunately, most of the Cuerdale find was allocated to the British Museum where it remains.
The hoard was dated to around 905 and contained coins from as far afield as Afghanistan. The Cuerdale Hoard included 8,500 pieces of silver, including 350 ingots, weighing 36 kilograms, as well as silver neck rings from Russia and from France, a very fine gilded Carolingian buckle. Some of the coins were of Arab and Byzantine origin. Much of the other material is typically Irish or Hiberno-Viking in form and decoration.
In an article in the Numismatic Gazette (December 1966), numismatist M Banks put forward the suggestion that the hoard was not even buried by Vikings, although it was Viking treasure, or much of it was. Banks suggested that the Cuerdale Hoard might have been a gift to English churches suffering persecution in the areas, known as the Danelaw, occupied by pagan Vikings. Since so many of the coins were apparently minted across the Channel, said Banks, they were probably a contribution from the Frankish Christians to their English brothers. Many such mysteries surround the Cuerdale trove.
Other Viking hoards have been found in the British Isles, such as the Halton Moor Hoard dating from the 11th century, but this was the largest trove of Viking silver found outside Russia. The coins found with the Cuerdale Hoard reveal that it must have been buried in the years between 905 and 910, shortly after the expulsion of the Vikings from Dublin in 902.
Silver formed the basis of currency in Viking times and was often buried in times of unrest, perhaps giving us the reason for this treasure’s presence for almost nine centuries on the south bank of the River Ribble. However, the Cuerdale Hoard and other treasures of its kind might have been buried for religious reasons (though the presence of coins bearing crosses would militate against this argument), or as a strange form of ostentation. In the 13th-century Egil's Saga, the hero Egil Skallagrimsson does just that, hiding his hoard to provide a lasting talking point for other people. This kind of ostentatious destruction of wealth is paralleled in other cultures, even in the modern West – perhaps you’ve even noticed.
More
And more
Top Ten treasures in the British Museum
Viking links
Pip Wilson's articles are available for your publication, on application. Further details
(Oh, yeah, belated happy birthday to the British Museum ... 250 years old on June 7. More)
Museum's broken treasure not just any old shit
Yep, that's the headline used by The Guardian newspaper ina piece on a fossilized Viking turd (coprolite)in a British museum that recently came to grief. Read about it here.
By the way, my emails are still down, now two and a half days. There will be no ezines sent on June 9 and until my ISP get's its coprolites together.
Pip Wilson posted item above at 10:50 AM | Permalink
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home