The Galloway Viking Hoard

In 2014, a metal detectorist in southwestern Scotland made a stunning discovery. The trove of more than 100 objects, seemingly Viking and hidden around A.D. 900, became known as the Galloway Hoard. It is the richest and most varied collection of Viking-age treasures ever found in Britain or Ireland.A cluster of four decorated Viking arm rings, bound together by a smaller fifth ring. Much of the silver had been treated as bullion or 'hacksilver'

Three inches below that trove, researchers found a Carolingian pot, a lidded metal vessel buried upside down, perhaps to keep out ground water. It turned out to be packed with treasures, many carefully swathed in leather and fine textiles. Only six of these Carolingian vessels have ever been found. Scholars believe they were used during important ceremonies in the Catholic Church.

The array of curious artifacts challenged researchers. Among the more surprising finds were a gold bird-shaped pin, an Anglo-Saxon cross, a rock crystal jar made for a bishop and a lidded vessel containing imported treasures from distant lands. The gold bird pin, decidedly not Viking, was crafted with intricate detail, and would have been extremely valuable. It could only have been worn by an abbot, a bishop, or royalty. In the upper layer, the team excavated the gold bird pin as well as 67 silver ingots and arm rings.

This portable silver served as ready cash in the Viking world: the elite hacked off pieces to buy cattle or other commodities, reward loyal followers, or pay troops in Viking mercenary armies.

A silver brooch (center) and a collection of glass beads, pendants, and curios were placed inside the hoard’s lidded silver vessel.

It's thought that the hoard was buried some time in the mid-ninth or tenth century. The items among the treasure originated across a wide geographic area that includes Ireland, Scandinavia, and central Europe.

Medieval texts date the arrival of the Vikings in the British Isles to the 790s A.D., when fierce raiders appeared along the coasts, plundering rich monasteries and terrorizing local communities. During the three centuries that followed, ambitious Viking chiefs and their followers arrived to conquer and colonize territories in England, Ireland, Wales, and Scotland, until they and their descendants were finally defeated or assimilated. Around the early 10th century Viking forces had suffered a serious setback in Ireland, and local Galloway folklore “referred to a Viking army being defeated by a Scots army” at Galloway.

The hoard's mixture of gold, silver, glass, enamel, and textiles is unique.

An Anglo-Saxon silver cross buried for more than a millennium was revealed. The cross, decorated using black niello and gold-leaf, features engravings depicting each of the writers of the Gospels. The Galloway Hoard is regarded as one of the richest and most significant finds of Viking objects ever found in the UK. The cross was made in Northumbria -- what is now northern England and southern Scotland -- in the 9th century for a high-ranking cleric.

The Galloway hoard is the richest collection of Viking-age objects ever found in Britain or Ireland. One of the artefacts was within a pouch that was mangled and misshapen. Its contents were restored, revealing an extraordinary Roman rock crystal jar. Research suggests that the rock crystal carving was Roman. It was perhaps 600 years old when it was transformed into a jar.

Rock crystal is unusual in itself. It was greatly prized in the ancient world for its transparency and translucency. It was associated with purity. An unexpected Latin inscription appears on the jar’s base. Spelled out in gold letters, it translates as “Bishop Hyguald had me made”. This is evidence that some of the hoard may have come from a church in the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Northumbria. Research into the Galloway Hoard has uncovered the name of one of its original owners on a silver arm ring. An expert examining Anglo-Saxon runic inscriptions on arm rings in the hoard found the name “Ecgbeorht”, which would be Egbert in its modern form.

The Oxus Treasure

The Oxus treasure is a hoard of 180 pieces of metalwork in gold and silver from the Achaemenid Persian period, found by the Oxus river in 1880 in Takht-i Kuwad, Tadjikistan. It is the world's most important collection of gold and silver to have survived from the Achaemenid period.

The Achaemenid Dynasty built an empire (559–330 BC) which, at its peak, spanned three continents.

Cyrus the Great

The Achaemenid dynasty ruled the Persian Empire, which stretched from Egypt and Thrace in the west to Central Asia and the Indus Valley in the east. In land mass, the Achaemenid Empire was the largest empire the ancient world had ever seen until 331-330 BC, when Alexander the Great toppled it on his eastward march from the Mediterranean through Afghanistan to India. The Persian Empire became the first to govern many ethnic groups on the principle of equal rights, as long as taxes were paid and the peace kept.

The king didn't interfere with the local customs and religions of its subject states, a unique quality that fostered rapid growth.

The treasure is thought to have once been housed in a temple which was looted and the hoard then buried to be retrieved later. The British Museum has nearly all the surviving metalwork from the hoard.

Coins of Marcus Antonius

Following the assassination of Caesar in 44 BCE, Rome was plunged into chaos. Many of Caesar’s conspirators, including M. Junius Brutus and C. Cassius Longinus, (Brutus and Cassius) fled Rome in fear of reprisal. Caesar’s ally, M. Antonius (Marc Antony) seized control during the power vacuum, with the conspirators on the run and Caesar’s designated heir, G. Octavius Thurinus, (Octavian) still with an army in Macedonia. He returned to Rome with a new name, G. Julius Caesar Octavianus.

In the spring of 43 BCE, Octavian, along with the consuls Aulus Hirtius and G. Vibius Pansa Caetronianus, conquered Antony and his five legions at the Battle of Mutina in Cisalpine Gaul. Though victorious, Hirtius was killed and Pansa died of possible poisoning. This left Octavian in command of all of their eight legions. Octavian, Antony, and Lepidus established a three-man dictatorship.

Antony, desperate to retain troops, began to strike one of the more iconic series of coinage in Rome’s history, the legionary denarius. The legionary denarii were the largest issue of silver coinage produced in the late Republican period.

Mark Antony’s Legionary Denarii celebrate his many legions – 23 of them, with two extra coins celebrating additional cohorts. They were struck in a lower-purity alloy of silver and copper and remained in circulation for centuries. The legionary issue was Antony's last.

About a dozen gold aurei struck with the same dies as the silver denarii are known. Unlike the debased silver (85 – 90% pure) for the denarius, the gold is very pure and the surviving coins are full weight — about eight grams. A Legion II aureus, pedigreed to the famous Hunt Collection, sold for over $205k. A Legion XIII aureus brought almost $160k in 2015; a Legion XIX made over $67k in 2008.

The coins allude directly to the events of the day, as they feature a praetorian galley. On September 2, 31 BCE, the forces of Octavian and M. Vipsanius Agrippa defeated Mark Antony and Cleopatra at Actium, a promontory between the Ambracian Gulf and the Ionian Sea. Antony and Cleopatra were forced to retreat for Egypt. The final defeat was the Battle of Alexandria on August 1, 30 BCE. It was the official end of the Roman Republic and the start of the Roman Empire.

Mark Antony (left) and Octavian (right). Struck in 41 BC, the coin was issued to mark the establishment of the Second Triumvirate. 38 BCE Marcus Antonius aureus minted in Athens during the Second Triumvirate. Mark Antony and Octavia. $220k.

Marcus Antonius portrait. Denarius, 42 B.C. Mark Antony and Cleopatra. 34 BC.

Aureus of Antony and his son Antyllus. 34 BC.

Tartarus and Elysium

Tartarus in ancient Greek mythology is the deep abyss that is used as a dungeon of torment and suffering for the wicked and as the prison for the Titans. As far below Hades as the earth is below the heavens, Tartarus is the place where, according to Plato, souls were judged after death and where the wicked received divine punishment. Tartarus was also considered to be a primordial force or deity.

According to Greek mythology, the realm of Hades is the place of the dead, but Tartarus also has a number of inhabitants. When Cronus came to power as the King of the Titans, he imprisoned the one-eyed Cyclopes and the hundred-armed Hecatonchires in Tartarus and set the monster Campe as its guard. Zeus killed Campe and released these imprisoned giants to aid in his conflict with the Titans. The gods of Olympus eventually triumphed. Cronus and many of the other Titans were banished to Tartarus.

Aegaeon the Hekantonkheires

Another Titan, Atlas, was sentenced to hold the sky on his shoulders to prevent it from resuming its primordial embrace with the Earth.

Heracles ends up building a large pillar that holds up the sky eventually freeing Atlas from his torment. Originally, Tartarus was used only to confine dangers to the gods of Olympus. In later mythologies, Tartarus became the place where the punishment fits the crime. Mythical figures such as Sisyphus, Tantalus, Ixion, Tityos and the Titan Prometheus met their fates in Tartarus. Tantalus was given eternal punishment where he was condemned to stand in a lake with fruits, but without being able to satisfy his thirst or his hunger.

In Greek and Roman mythology Elysium, also called Elysian Fields or Elysian Plain, was the paradise to which heroes on whom the gods conferred immortality were sent.

In Homer’s writings the Elysian Plain was a land of perfect happiness at the end of the Earth, on the banks of the Oceanus. Earlier, only those favored by the gods entered Elysium and were made immortal. Later Elysium was a place for the blessed dead and entrance was gained by a righteous life.