Conservation of cross from Galloway Hoard reveals ‘supreme’ example of Anglo-Saxon metalwork
New images reveal the stunning detail of an Anglo-Saxon cross buried for over 1,000 years as part 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-decorated 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:Viking-age Treasure at the National Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh from 19 February to 9 May (Covid-19 restrictions permitting).
The silver cross is decorated in late Anglo-Saxon style using black niello and gold-leaf. In each of the four arms of the cross are the symbols of the four evangelists who wrote the Gospels of the New Testament: Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.
Discovering and decoding the secrets of the Galloway Hoard is a multi-layered process. Conservation of the metal objects has revealed decorations, inscriptions and other details that were not previously visible. But even the act of removing dirt to see what’s underneath is not as simple as it might appear. The silver spiral chain wrapped around the cross was particularly intricate, made from wire less than a millimetre in diameter and wrapped around an organic core, preserved within the coiled silver and identified as animal gut. Conservators improvised a cleaning tool by carving a porcupine quill, sharp enough to remove the dirt yet soft enough not to damage the metalwork. For more on the 2021 exhibition programme at National Museums Scotland, visit