‘Encrusted in a millennium's worth of dirt’ – details of Galloway Hoard revealed
Conservation work has revealed new details of an Anglo-saxon cross buried for more than 1,000 years as par t of the Galloway Hoard, one of the UK’S most important archaeological finds of recent times.
Previously encrusted in a millennium’ s worth of dirt, months of painstaking cleaning and conservation work has revealed an intricately deco - rated silver cross, allowing scholars to view this detail for the first time before it is put on public display in a new exhibition, Galloway Hoard: Vikingage Treasure at the National Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh from 19 February.
The silver cross is decorated in Late Anglo-saxon style using black niello and goldleaf. In each of the four arms of the cross are the symbols of the four evangelists who wrote the Gospel soft he New Testament, Saint Matthew, Mark (Lion), Luke (Cow) and John (Eagle).
Dr Martin Goldberg, principal curator of Early Medieval and Viking Collection sat National Museums Scotland, said :“Our approach to developing further understandin go ft he Galloway Hoard involves the great patience, careful examination and pains taking care of conservation, combined with wide-ranging research on the great variety of materials and objects in this outstanding hoard.
"The cross is a wonderfully visual representation of the work we have been doing to reveal new details about the hoard. The conservation work lets us see this object clearly for the first time in over a thousand years, but it also reveals a whole new set of questions.”
The cross is just one of many unusual features in the Galloway Hoard. Late Anglo-Saxon Christian metalwork is very unusual in Viking-age silver hoards. As well as silver bullion, the Galloway Hoard contains a large collection of brooches, bracelets, glass beads, pendants, curios, heirlooms and more gold than any other hoard surviving from Viking-age Britain and I reland, as well as outstanding preservation of organic materials including Scotland’s earliest examples of silk.
Dr Leslie Webster, former Keep er of Britain, Prehisto-ry and Europe at the British Museum, added: “The pectoral cross, with its subtle decoration of evangelist symbols and foliage, glittering gold and black inlays, and its delicately coiled chain, is an outstanding example of the Anglo-Saxon goldsmith’s art. It was made in Northumbria in the later ninth century for a highranking cleric, as the distinctive form of the cross suggests. Anglo -S axon crosses of this kind are exceptionally rare, and only one other – much less elaborate – is known from the ninth century. The discover y of this pendant cross, in such a remarkable context, is of major importance for the study of early medieval goldsmith’s work, and for our understanding of Viking and Anglo-saxon interactions in this turbulent period.”
The Galloway Hoard was discovered in 2014. , and it was acquired by National Muse - ums Scotland in 2017. Since then, it has been undergoing extensive conservation and research at the National Museums Collection Centre in Edinburgh.
The exhibition, supported by Baillie Gifford Investment Managers, will run at the National Museum of Scotland until May 9 n ext year.