£1million Viking treasure hoard goes on display

Discovered in 6 January 2007 by two metal detectorists David Whelan, 60, and his 35-year-old son Andrew through a farmer’s field near Harrogate, in northern England, who reported it to their local finds officer, the hoard has since been valued at more than £1million by the Independent Treasure Valuation Committee. The most important Viking treasure to be discovered in 150 years has been jointly acquired by York Museums Trust and the British Museum. It will now go on joint display at the two venues.

The Vale of York hoard, unearthed by a father and son team of treasure hunters in a field and dated at more than 1,000 years old, includes many precious metal objects including 617 coins, a gilt silver vessel, a rare gold armring, ingots and chopped-up fragments known as hack silver. The objects, which the Yorkshire Museum will share with the British Museum , are said to have been amassed from Afghanistan, Ireland, Russia and Scandinavia, underlining the global reach of seafarers during the medieval period. The hoard was probably buried by a wealthy Viking leader during the unrest that followed the conquest of the Viking kingdom of Northumbria in AD 927 by the Anglo-Saxon king Athelstan (924-39). It is being regarded as the most significant find of its kind in since 1840.

For David Whelan and his son Andrew, the ’metal detectorists’ who unearthed the find, it has proved a treasure hunters’ dream come true. They will share its valuation — £1,082,000 — with the landowner. They recalled that their expedition in fields around Harrogate in January 2007, had started badly when they were turned away from two farms. They were left with a site they believed to be unpromising because all they had previously turned up there were buttons. Almost immediately they unearthed the hoard.

Andrew said: “My father got a strong signal and a cup tumbled out after a couple of scoops of earth. There was a coin sat on the top of this bundle. We knew then it was something big and we were shaking with excitement as we lifted it out”.

The pair have won the praise of conservationists for swiftly realising the value of their find and leaving it virtually untouched for experts to carefully unwrap. They declared their treasure to their local finds liaison officer in Leeds.

Much of the hoard, which contains 67 objects, was preserved inside the gilt silver vessel, made around the middle of the 9th century, close to where the present-day Franco-German border runs. It was probably intended for use in church services and was believed to have been looted by Vikings from a monastery. The artefacts were extraordinarily well-preserved because they had kept in a lead container. The hoard also contains coins relating to Islam and the pre-Christian religion of the Vikings.

Andrew said: “Being keen metal detectorists we always dreamt of finding a hoard but to find one from such a fantastic period of history is just unbelievable.

“The contents of the hoard we found went far beyond our wildest dreams and hopefully people will love seeing the objects on display in York and London for many, many years to come.”

The York Museums Trust in York and the British Museum acquired he find with the assistance of the National Lottery Fund. It will go on display in York on September 17 before moving to London. One of the coins, which bears the Latin inscription, Rex Tiotius Britanniae, dating to 927, is the earliest indication of Britain being under one ruler, at a time when the country was split between Viking and Anglo-Saxon control.

Lee Clark of the York Museums Trust, which will share ownership of the hoard with the British Museum, said: “The size and quality of the material in the hoard is remarkable, making it the most important find of its type in Britain for over 150 years.

“It is the largest and most important Viking hoard from Britain since the hoard found at Cuerdale in Lancashire in 1840.” Jonathan Williams, Keeper of Prehistory and Europe at the British Museum, said: “This find is of global importance as well as having huge significance for the history of England and Yorkshire.”

Source: UK Timesonline, MSNBC