Silverdale lives up to its name
These days hordes of hoards seem to be emerging from British soil with extraordinary regularity – which must be extremely encouraging to amateur archaeologists and enthusiastic metal detectorists. But for anyone who revels in the idea of stumbling upon some tangible link to the past, and something of great historic importance, one of the most exciting stories of the last 12 months must be the discovery of the Silverdale Hoard.
Found by Darren Webster last September, after a mere 20 minutes of hunting around a field which he had surveyed before, the hoard was buried just over 15 inches (40cm) below the surface.
At first Mr Webster's find seemed unremarkable, as it was enclosed in a lead sheet bent around to form a container. When this was removed from the earth, however, silver pieces began to fall through a hole in the bottom. On seeing this, he knew he had found something significant that was, he says, 'more than likely Viking'. The hoard comprised over 201 silver items, including 27 coins, arm-rings, finger-rings, ingots and 141 fragments of chopped up silver jewellery, known as 'hack silver'.
After the Finds Liaison Officer (FLO) for Lancashire and Cumbria was alerted, the hoard was transported to the British Museum, where specialists spent several weeks photographing, examining, cleaning and cataloguing each piece. Following this, it was determined that the hoard was buried around 900AD. At this time the Vikings had been driven back out of Ireland and were desperately trying to retain control of the north of England in the face of Anglo-Saxon resistance. This historical context, coupled with the fact that the silver had been deliberately placed in a substantial lead container, suggests that it was buried for protection (suggesting that the owner was financially stable) in a time of turmoil and uncertainty. He was clearly a wealthy man, likely to have been a warrior – the arm-rings found are of the kind often given by kings to reward distinguished military service, and the rest of the jewellery would no doubt have been an ostentatious display of wealth.
The time of the hoard's burial is one period when the sparseness of material evidence means that any find is likely to have a significant effect on our understanding of the past, and the Silverdale Hoard did not disappoint. The most important discovery among the items was a silver coin with the name of a previously unknown Viking ruler on one side. The inscription 'AIRDECONUT' to one side is thought to be a corruption of the Scandinavian name of Harthacnut. On the obverse is 'DNS' (short for 'dominus') and 'REX' ('king') in a cruciform arrangement, which shows the Viking adoption of Christianity.
The rest of the coins are mainly Anglo-Saxon or Viking, with some Frankish examples, and some from as far away as Islamic lands, showing the far-flung extent of the Viking trade network. In December 2011 the coroner's report, informed by the findings of the British Museum, declared the Silverdale Hoard to be treasure trove. This means that, in line with the Treasure Act 1996, the Treasure Valuation Committee will now set a financial value on the finds and, when that sum is raised, it will be split between the land-owner and the finder, Mr Webster. Lancaster City Museum has already expressed an interest in acquiring the collection.
The hoard was displayed in the British Museum for much of December to coincide with the launch of the Treasure and Portable Antiquities Scheme Reports. It is hard to think of a more apt demonstration of how successful these schemes have been in bringing archaeological finds into the public realm. Indeed the reports show that 90,099 finds were recorded in 2010 alone. Who knows what treasures this year may reveal?
Geoff Lowsley