A hoard of Roman and Pictish hacked-up silver, coins and jewelry has been found in Aberdeenshire, Scotland.
Archaeologist examines a crescent shaped brooch fragment from the Aberdeenshire hoard. Image credit: © Phil Wilkinson / University of Aberdeen.
The find, dated to the 4th to 6th century CE, contains over 100 silver objects, including Roman and Pictish vessels, bracelets and brooches, and Roman coins.
“This exciting new find is part of a broader phenomenon of hacksilver hoards which stretch across Europe from the 4th to 6th centuries, when the Western Roman Empire was in decline,” said Dr Gordon Noble of the University of Aberdeen, who led the fieldwork as part of the Northern Picts project.
Silver crescent from the Aberdeenshire hoard. Image credit: © National Museum Scotland.
“Silver objects were chopped up into bullion and then used and exchanged as payment, bribes, tribute and reward. People buried their wealth to keep it safe, but many did not return to recover their hoard.”
“Pictish communities in this area were part of powerful kingdoms in the early medieval period.”
A Roman coin from the Aberdeenshire hoard. Image credit: © Phil Wilkinson / University of Aberdeen.
The discovery fits in to a sequence of silver use and re-use over several centuries that can now be studied alongside two other Scottish hacksilver hoards, the purely Late Roman silver from Traprain Law, East Lothian and the Pictish silver from Norrie’s Law, Fife.
These hoards contain a range of interesting material: earlier items from all over the Roman Empire, but also some unique objects and other later objects which have links to Ireland, the near continent and Anglo-Saxon England and give a snapshot of Scotland in Early Medieval Europe.
Silver objects from the Aberdeenshire hoard, from left to right, top to bottom: fragment of a zoomorphic silver brooch, an undecorated brooch, silver ingot, and a folded bracelet. Image credit: © National Museum Scotland.
“It is a hugely important discovery being Europe’s most northerly Late Roman hacksilver hoard, and also containing otherwise unique Pictish silver,” said Dr Martin Goldberg of National Museums Scotland.
