University of Exeter - Open Exeter

Hoards and Hoarding

Some 34 hoards of Scandinavian type have been discovered in Scotland since the 17th century. These were mainly of silver objects, jewellery, coins, ingots and hack silver, resulting from the cutting up of larger objects into small pieces. Mixed hoards are known, as well as deposits with coins only or silver objects only. Vikings tested silver to check that it was pure and this resulted in pecking, scraping or bending of the object. These marks help to distinguish Scandinavian from native hoards. The distribution of the hoards is, not surprisingly, largely in areas where Scandinavians are known to have been active - the Northern and Western Isles and Caithness. Hoards of silver from Pictish contexts are known, showing that silver circulated in Scotland before the arrival of the Vikings and may have been an attraction to Viking raiders. However, there was no source of silver worked in Scotland itself and the quality of some Pictish silver is poor. The Vikings certainly brought foreign silver into Scotland, as shown by the sources of coins in the hoards - the Arabic Empire, England, Frankia, Ireland. 

The hoards range from just a few items to the Skaill hoard, from western Orkney weighing about 8 kgs. (not to be confused with the settlement site at Skaill on the east coast of Orkney). The most frequently found object in the Scottish hoards is a simple silver arm-ring, of penannular form. These have been termed ‘ring-money’ by modern scholars, since it is thought that they were used as a primitive form of currency.  No coins were minted in Scotland until the 12th century. Attempts have been made to show that the weight of the arm-rings are in single or multiple units of the Scandinavian ounce - about 24g - but tests have shown that there is considerable deviation in the weights. Therefore, although ‘ring-money’ may represent an attempt to produce currency units they would still have had to be weighed in any exchanges.

The process of hoarding is difficult tos understand. At its simplest we might argue that raiding took place and the spoils were buried in the ground until they were required as gifts, for a particular transaction or perhaps for a ceremony such as a wedding. Equally in a period of unrest people might bury their wealth in the ground.  In western Europe well-to-do families entrusted their portable wealth to the Church for safe-keeping, but a valid alternative was to bury it in the ground. We have no way of knowing, of course, how many hoards were buried or even more crucially how many were recovered and used in this period. However, there are problems with connecting raiding and hoarding directly in Scotland. Most of the hoards which can be dated were deposited from about the 930’s  to about the 1060’s, with a peak in hoarding late 10th- early 11th century.  But raiding would be seen as a characteristic activity of the late 8th to  9th century in Scotland, so raiding and hoarding do not appear to correlate. Clearly hoarding could not take place until there was either plenty of silver around in society or silver was in transit through the area. Raiding is one way in which it might be obtained, but trading, gift exchanges, compensation and tribute payments are others. Scotland apparently became richer during the Viking Age and coin finds indicate that this was largely through long-distance contacts. Scandinavians were almost certainly responsible for bringing good quality silver into the area.

The distribution of hoards in Scotland is largely coastal, but a few do occur inland and it is possible that for some burial of wealth in the ground was part of ritual  with no intention of recovery. It is noteworthy that as the furnished burial ritual ceased in the mid tenth century so hoardning increased. Perhaps the latter in some ways replaced the former suggesting a ritual element to both. Equally hoarding might result from excess wealth, where a portion was buried in the ground, that is deliberately lost from the family, as part of a display of status, what prehistorians call 'conspicuous consumption'. Once land ownership was sorted out we might expect hoarding to cease, since power would no longer depend on a show of portable wealth, but on the extent of land holding. Silver might now be used for buying and selling rather than demonstration or for paying off dependents. At about the same time we would expect units of currency to be developed, that is coins to be minted, as they were in Scotland from the 12th century. 

Questions for you to think about

  1. What were the main characteristics of a Viking hoard?
  2. Comment on the distribution of the hoards in Scotland.
  3. Why might anyone in this period bury a hoard?
  4. Why did hoarding cease in Scotland?

Quiz

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Further Reading

Anderson, A.O.  1923  Early Sources of Scottish History A.D. 500 - 1286  [2 vols.]

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