Viking-age treasure travelled half the world to Scotland

A “remarkable” lidded urn which is more than 1,000 years old and was discovered in a hoard of treasures in Scotland was transported from halfway around the world, it has been revealed.

The Galloway Hoard is a collection of ancient treasures which was discovered ten years ago and included the lidded vessel, which contained a number of artefacts. The urn was found in 2014 wrapped in textiles, which themselves were considered an extremely rare survival.

The hoard is estimated to have been created in about 900 AD, and was discovered by excavators near Balmaghie in the historical county of Kirkcudbrightshire. Scientific analysis has confirmed the urn is of west Asian origin. The materials used to make the vessel originated in what is now central Iran.

The textiles were studied and retained for further analysis, and laser cleaning has helped reveal further details on the vessel including crowns, fire altars, leopards and tigers. The imagery is considered unusual in western Europe, with researchers stating it is associated with Zoroastrianism, the state religion of the Sasanian Empire in Iran, before Islam became the more widely practised faith during the 7th and 8th centuries.

Dr Martin Goldberg, from National Museums Scotland, said: “We had suspected from X-ray scanning the vessel that it may have originated somewhere in central or western Asia, but it’s only now that we’ve carefully conserved and analysed it that we can say this is definitively the case.

“It’s further evidence of the cosmopolitan make-up of the Galloway Hoard. We now know that the Viking-age silver that makes up most of the hoard was melted down from coins and metalwork from early medieval England. Some objects, like the lidded vessel, stood out from the rest and the scientific analysis now confirms this.

“It is incredible to imagine how the vessel made its journey halfway round the known world, from Iran to this distant corner of south-west Scotland.”

Dr Jane Kershaw, an expert on Viking-age silver from the University of Oxford, added: “Taking tiny samples from both the vessel body and the niello — the black silver-sulphide inlays that outline the decoration — we assessed the provenance of the silver.

“It was immediately clear that the vessel was unlike any other silver contained in the hoard: instead, the results point to origins in the Sasanian Empire, what is today Iran. Elemental analysis using portable X-ray fluorescence revealed that the vessel is an alloy of silver and relatively pure copper, which is typical of Sasanian silver, but not contemporary European silver.

Leopards, tigers and crowns are considered unusual imagery for a Western artefact

NATIONAL MUSEUMS SCOTLAND

“In addition, the isotopes of the lead contained within the silver metal and niello match ore from Iran. We can even go so far as to say that the niello derives from the famous mine of Nakhlak in central Iran. It’s fantastic to have scientific confirmation for the distant origins of this remarkable object.”

The vessel will go on display for the first time later this month as part of the British Museum’s forthcoming exhibition, Silk Roads, in London. Other objects from the Galloway Hoard will go on long-term display at the National Museum of Scotland, in Edinburgh, while a portion will go on show at Kirkcudbright Galleries.

Dr Sue Brunning, from the British Museum, said: “We’re delighted that visitors to Silk Roads will be the first in the world to see this key object from the Galloway Hoard. Among its remarkable contents were Scotland’s earliest recorded silk, and so it is a highly appropriate inclusion in the exhibition.

“For the first time it will be displayed alongside a similar vessel found in northern Britain and also used as a Viking-age treasure container, but the Galloway vessel is the only one confirmed as originating beyond Europe, in lands far to the east. It was, itself, a long-distance traveller on the Silk Roads’ sprawling networks.”