23.10.2014 Galloway Treasure

Hundreds of gold and silver objects were discovered in autumn 2014 by a prospector with a metal detector in Scotland. Experts say it was the rarest Viking find in the country since the nineteenth century. The depot contained bracelets, crosses and brooches.

The treasure was discovered near the Scottish town of Dumfries by prospector Derek McLennan, who goes metal detecting regularly. Experts have estimated the value of the hoard at 35 million. The finder was out of his mind when he found the rare items. He couldn't even speak and just waved one of the items he found.

"I turned one of the artifacts over and ran my finger over it. It was clear there was a pattern on it, which of course caught my eye. I figured it was a Viking object," McLennan said at the time.

Later, the find came to be called the Galloway Treasure. McLennan discovered it with a CTX 3030 detector. The objects date back to the ninth and tenth centuries, when the area was plundered by the Vikings. The treasure was commented on at the time by Stuart Campbell, curator of the National Museum of Scotland. "It's an extremely important find, especially because the materials come from many different countries. Nothing like this has ever been found in Scotland before," he stated.

The scientists have subjected the ornate cross, which was part of the Galloway hoard, to detailed analysis. They found it was made in Northumbria in the late ninth century. Only one such cross is known from this period, but it is not nearly as ornate. The piece found near the Scottish town of Dumfries has been thoroughly cleaned by experts.

"We found that it has a typically Anglo-Saxon artistic appearance. It looks like objects that were found at the highest levels of society. It probably belonged to one of the aristocratic families," Martin Goldberg, chief curator of the early medieval collections, revealed at the time.

We wrote more about the cross here:
https://www.lovecpokladu.cz/home/unikatni-anglosasky-kriz-z-pokladu-detektoristy-ziskal-po-trech-letech-cisteni-svuj-puvodni-vzhled-8361

A year or so before this discovery, McLennan had found a collection of medieval silver coins. He found a total of three hundred coins together with his friend Gus Paterson, just before the Christmas holidays in 2013 near Twynholm. They were searching at the time, even though it was pretty nasty outside and the wind was blowing hard.

We wrote more about the coins here:
https://www.lovecpokladu.cz/home/databaze-nalezu-se-plni-v-twynholmu-nasli-detektorem-300-minci-6157

Sources: www.dailymail.co.uk, https://ct24.ceskatelevize.cz/, www.bbc.com