Silver teardrop could be part of Pictish helmet

HISTORY: Helmet is believed to have been worn by king or battle leader

A teardrop-shaped piece of silver decorated with Pictish symbols could be the first surviving evidence of a Pictish helmet, according to researchers at the National Museum of Scotland (NMS).

The object was part of a 5th Century hoard of silver discovered at Norrie’s Law, near Upper Largo in Fife, around 1819.

Researchers now believe the piece adorned an ornamental helmet worn by a Pictish king or battle leader to highlight his elevated status.

The new theory comes after experts preparing a new exhibition on “Scotland’s Early Silver” compared the find with similar material found in continental Europe, and found its shape and worn edges matched those of fittings on helmets in Germany and France.

Although the Picts have a warlike reputation, very few weapons have been found and no evidence of a helmet has been identified before in Scotland.

Dr Fraser Hunter, principal curator of Iron and Roman age collections at NMS said: “Small-scale kingdoms were beginning to emerge in Scotland around this time, and the kind of person who would wear silver like this would have been an early king or a battle leader. The exhibition is full of treasures but this is one of the real star pieces.”

The Norrie’s Law hoard was discovered at Balman Farm north of Largo Law during extraction of gravel from a mound that turned out to be a Bronze Age burial cairn.

Only four complete items remain – a hand pin, a spiral finger ring, a brooch with a twisted hoop and the decorated plaque.

The plaque features a “double disc and Z-rod symbol” with the head of a dog or other animal.

Dr Hunter, who has written of the latest research in a book to accompany the new exhibition, said: “A couple of thousand years after the burial cairn was used, someone in the Pictish period came along and buried their hoard of silver there.

“The workers discovered it, but much of it was melted down before the surviving fragments became known to archaeology.

“Even these small fragments can still tell us new stories.

“This would be the earliest evidence of a helmet, but it also shows they were in touch with what was happening on the continent.

“This shows the Picts were not some isolated barbarian race on the edge of the world.

“This is a style of helmet that was all the fashion on the continent in the fifth and sixth centuries.”

Scotland’s Early Silver opens on Friday at the National Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh. It will run until February 25 then tour nationally.

Picture: Saltire News. The teardrop-shaped piece of silver is thought to have been part of a Pictish helmet like that shown below.