The Galloway Hoard

On today's show, we are chatting about three of my favourite things: Scotland, Vikings & Treasure! From the origins of Vikings in the British Isles to the discovery of the Galloway Hoard, which we were lucky enough to go and see first-hand, we're travelling through time today to look at the mix of cultures and religion which dominated Viking-era Scotland! Thank you so much to the Australian National Maritime Museum https://www.sea.museum/en/home for making this episode of Hot History possible - head to sea.museum https://www.sea.museum/en/visit/tickets for 10% off your tickets to see the Galloway Hoard while it's in Sydney until October 11. Shout out to our incredible researcher Grace McCamish for pulling this together, and to Inger Shiel for chatting with us. If you're wanting more Hot History you can follow along on ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ https://www.instagram.com/hothistoryclub/?hl=en, ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠TikTok⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ https://www.tiktok.com/@hot.history?lang=en, ⁠⁠⁠Substack⁠⁠⁠ https://substack.com/@hothistoryclub, ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠YouTube⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ https://www.youtube.com/@hot.history and of course, right here! 'Til next week, Ainslie x

• 0:00Speaker 00

  This episode of Hot History is brought to you by the Australian National Maritime Museum. Book your tickets to see treasures of the Viking Age, the Galloway Hoard exclusively at the Sea Museum.

• 0:24Speaker 00

  Hi guys and welcome back to Hot History, your corner of the internet where we cover all the things in history that you probably should know but don't. I'm Ainslie Harvey, your hot historian here, ready to chat about three of my favourite things today, okay guys? One, Scotland. Two, Vikings. And three, buried treasure. That is right, my divas. Today is a very, very special episode because we're not only going to do our normal, like, in-studio chat here, which I say in-studio, like, you're all in my bedroom, but we are also going to step out into the real world and take a visit to the Australian National Maritime Museum to go and see the actual treasure that we are talking about today.

• 1:10Speaker 00

  So strap in, divas, and let's rewind all the way back to 600 million years ago. Yeah, when I say we are, like, fully going back in history, we are going back to the geological formation of Scotland. Which you may be thinking, you know, I thought we were talking about Vikings, not dinosaurs? But I wanted to start here today, guys, by explaining how Scotland actually became a nation, became an island geographically, right? So, once upon, 600 million years ago, Scotland was connected to North America, while England was attached to what is now mainland Europe. However, after much geological shifting and plate collision, the two land masses collided,

• 1:52Speaker 00

  where Scotland's gorgeous and mountainous landscape was formed by a number of earthquakes and volcanic eruptions. Now, if we zoom forward, okay, to 12,000 BCE, we find the first humans settling here, with hunter-gatherers living off a mix of native plants and animals until about 4,000 BCE, aka the Neolithic period, where population growth from Europe saw cultivating and farming increase alongside ownership of the land as rising sea levels flooded the land bridge connecting Britain to Europe, effectively making it an island. Next came the Bronze Age, around 2,500 BCE,

• 2:32Speaker 00

  which was a period that was really characterised by the arrival of both metalwork and general technological advancement, which, according to archaeological studies, is when burial structures, ornaments made from exotic metals and social hierarchies were beginning to form. Okay, so we've got, like, a bit more of a society. We then move forward roughly 2,000 years and we get to the Iron Age in 700 BCE, which is similar in a way to the Bronze Age before, but instead saw far more effective and elaborate tools and weapons being made alongside forts of timber, earth and stone with defence in mind, okay? Showing us that battles, or at least, you know, kind of minor conflicts,

• 3:16Speaker 00

  were clearly starting to take place at this stage in Scottish history. Something which levelled up in 500 BCE because the Celts arrived. So who are these divas? Well, the Celts were a common culture who were a tribal, hierarchical and largely agricultural society, originating from Central Europe, which historians believe to be from either parts of Austria or Switzerland. With a propensity for equal parts brutality and an admiration of beauty, the Celts' migration to Scotland over a series of periods is marked by both times of war and those of prosperity.

• 3:59Speaker 00

  And it is amongst this kind of Celtic period in Scotland that the Vikings arrive. We are getting to the mid-divas. So, now we're caught up on this, let's pick up our timeline in 795 AD at a small monastery on the Isle of Iona, off the coast of mainland Scotland. Now, Iona is a small, yes, but mighty place at this point in history. First established in 563 AD by Irish monk Columba, the island was renowned for its manuscripts, its trained missionaries and its relations with institutions across Ireland, Scotland and Northern Europe. But it was also renowned for something else.

• 4:41Speaker 00

  Incredibly valuable church objects, including decorated reliquaries, precious metalwork and more. Which meant, before long, it was wealthy, it was famous and, right, it's surrounded by the sea, with little to no fortification. AKA, it was ripe for the taking by Vikings. Now, before we get into what they did, all right, let's just go through who the Vikings of this age were, because I want to paint a really clear picture, kind of, of who we're dealing with. So, if you're out here thinking, Erling Haaland, right?

• 5:20Speaker 00

  They've got these, like, blonde hair and these horned helmets, they've got to do this kind of scary war cries, there's lots of axes and furs. Well, to be honest, you're kind of right. For while the Smithsonian says there is no sign that Vikings really wore horned helmets, they did, in fact, love a good bushy beard and a sturdy axe, decking themselves out in furs and leather from both their homeland in Scandinavia and from settlements they raided, which, I mean, kind of gets to the bottom of what they do. As a largely agrarian society, the Vikings, which actually comes from the Old Norse word vike, meaning bay, which was then turned into a verb, vikinga, which means to raid. Fun little fact, you know, I love a little sprinkle in there.

• 6:06Speaker 00

  They supplemented, right, their income in the off-seasons or times of bad harvest by yearly raids. As renowned sea voyagers, their skill in ship-making and navigation allowed them to be nimble, it allowed them to be swift and to sail long distances along beaches and shorelines, which made Iona the perfect target. Right, it is full of loot and, importantly here, it is only a three-ish day journey for the Vikings, who arrived almost as quickly as they left, striking the lovely monastery and its lovely treasure, which, if you're a Viking, is what they call movable wealth.

• 6:49Speaker 00

  That's right, my divas, it is not worth taking anything which can sink your longboat. So jewellery, right, rare metals and even women were all considered fair game at this time. Now, according to the Annals of Ulster, which records this 795 attack, it tells us little beyond the fact, quote, "Iona was devastated by heathens", which means we don't actually know exactly how many Vikings came, who commanded them, or even precisely where they came from, with historians' best guesses, like we said, being Norsemen. But to tell you the truth, my divas, it didn't really matter. For the Vikings saw the sea as a road and this raid on Iona would essentially open a new freeway for them,

• 7:33Speaker 00

  right into the heart of the British Isles. Now, it's key to note here at this point in history, violence nor raids were unusual for Scotland in particular, with the Picts, the Angles and Irish all known to raid their coastline. But the Vikings were something else entirely, okay? For once they discovered all this treasure to raid, they marked Scotland, which FYI, guys, when we say Scotland, we do mean, like, the modern nation, right? For at this point in history, it's not really as simple as just saying the Scots are in their region and the Anglo-Saxons, for example, are in England. There's a lot of crossover, which we'll get to later with the treasure.

• 8:15Speaker 00

  But the Vikings see this land and think, what an amazing place to pitch a tent. Finding farmland, potential for trade, raw materials and the climate being relatively similar to their own. This meant that Norwegian settlements began to pop up in Scotland by 800 AD, which was paired with a terrible harvest and growing population in Norway that same year, prompting many families to pack their ships up and settle in the land of Haggis and Gordon Ramsay. Here, they became farmers, merchants and fishermen, basically doing what they did before in Scandinavia, but just now here. So while, yes, the initial raids, especially those on Iona, were rather bloody and gore-filled,

• 8:59Speaker 00

  the Viking establishment in Scotland wasn't abnormal, but that doesn't mean it was welcomed, okay? Constantly expanding their territory, the Vikings wiped out the Pictish royal family in 839 AD, who were one of the major groups occupying Scotland before the Vikings arrived. So we have kind of this initial, immediate conflict with the various smaller kingdoms in these early years, which then escalated to another level in 877, when, wait for the pronunciation here, my divas, I am trying so hard, okay? Cosumnian Makkinaita, aka one of the most powerful kings in Scotland at the time,

• 9:41Speaker 00

  was reportedly killed fighting the Vikings, resulting in his earldom, that of Northumbria, being seized. So, some blood and gore in Scotland, right? But definitely not as the movies portray, with the Vikings' power in the region expanding as the decades passed, until around the 11th century, when they really had a firm hold on Scotland. Which is when something really fascinating begins to happen here, primarily in the, um, western regions of Scotland. For the existing Gaelic population began blending with the Norse communities and some Anglo-Saxons through trade, intermarriage and various alliances, building this very hybrid kind of society,

• 10:22Speaker 00

  where there wasn't necessarily Scots or Vikings or Anglo-Saxons, but this interconnected Norse Gaelic world, which we still actually see as part of modern Scottish culture, with remnants of Viking impact found in the names of places and people, particularly amongst Scots on the North East Coast, uh, who still tend to have kind of quite Norse-sounding names, as well as in archaeological Viking settlements like Jalshof, which was occupied for over 400 years and can still be visited today. So by this point, the Scandinavians are really established in the region. But what did the Vikings do in Scotland? Because let me tell you, divas, they certainly weren't there for a tour of Harry Potter filming locations or a backpipe show, okay?

• 11:06Speaker 00

  Well, like I said before, they were kind of doing the same thing they did at home, right? They were trading fur, um, they were fishing, they were kind of farming timber alongside traditional craftsmanship with things like basins, flat plates and fishing weights being found by archaeologists in the region. As for their houses, they were pretty typical of the era, made largely of stone or wood, with their roofs then made of straw or turf. Um, women in these societies were actually the real workers around the house and the village, making tools for farming, fishing nets, looking after animals and children. Plus, my divas, a fun little fact I wanted to throw in when I found this, we do also

• 11:48Speaker 00

  have some sources that say women may have been warriors too. With the Burka DNA study led by Uppsala University archaeologist Charlotte Hedon Stenner Johnson in twenty seventeen, revealing genomic and isotopic analyses, which proved that a famous tenth to eleventh century warrior grave in Burka, Sweden belonged biologically to a woman, who was even buried with a full suite of weapons, which proves Viking women participated in raids and war. As for the Scottish Viking women, the twelfth century text, The War of the Irish and the Foreigners, details a tenth to eleventh century Viking military commander from the Scottish

• 12:30Speaker 00

  region known as Ingham Ruad, AKA The Red Girl. So up the divas, right, who were doing the hard grift amongst these kind of Norse, um, Scot communities. Now, these societies were also really highly organised and well functioning, with some settlements holding markets where fresh fish, animal skin, metalwork, glass, silk, jewellery and all sorts of other kind of trinkets, right, could be purchased and traded. And they even engaged in recreations like ice skating, often carving their own skates from animal legs and feet bones. They were also thought to be quite political, holding an annual local assembly where political

• 13:12Speaker 00

  matters, laws and punishments were decided, something which, this is one of my favourite things researching this, they called this kind of annual assembly, um, the thing, which, you know, you'd think they could have maybe come up with a, a more romantic name, but no, I guess it is to the point, right? I'll see you at the thing later, like, don't forget about the thing, or I'll see you at the thing next year, like, I get it, I can see where it came from. So all in all, a very functioning, uh, relatively normal, right, eleventh century society. But everything must come to an end. And by the early twelve hundreds, Norway and Scotland both had lively and ambitious kings, Hakan IV of Norway and Alexander II of Scotland.

• 13:55Speaker 00

  And let me tell you, my divas, there is trouble brewing because these two have major beef, which led to the Battle of Largs. Here, Alexander II died in twelve forty-nine and was succeeded by Alexander III, who decided to retaliate by launching truly, truly brutal raids, okay, deep into Norse territory, something which archaeologist Dr John Henderson goes as far to call ethnic cleansing, an outrage which Hakan could not ignore. As such, he rallied his forces and a hundred and twenty ships, which Alexander knew would be his downfall. After all, like, these, of all the people you wanna kind of face off at sea, the Norsemen

• 14:40Speaker 00

  ain't one of them, right? So he decides to use the autumn weather against them. And in October twelve sixty-three, Hakan's fleet was totally scattered, with only one thousand survivors who managed to reach the shoreline, which is when the Scots pounced, forcing the men to retreat. In fury, Hakan planned a bloody revenge campaign, but died before he could launch it, leaving his son to be king, and he, unlike his father, couldn't really care less about Scotland, and as such, signed the Treaty of Perth in twelve sixty-six, giving large amounts of land back to Scotland in exchange for some cashola, which Henderson says began, quote, "the long, slow process of becoming Scots again."

• 15:24Speaker 00

  But of course, this didn't mean that the Norse community simply up and left. After all, by this point, they'd embedded themselves in both the land and their community for decades, and remained in areas such as the Hebrides, Orkney and parts of the northern mainland, while the Scottish kingdom increasingly controlled the centre of the country. Now, I can, my divas, I definitely will do a much deeper dive into Scottish history post Viking era, but I just think this is such a fascinating time, um, you know, kind of in history, you have this blending of cultures and craftsmanship in this one place, similar, I think, in many ways, um, to kind of the early, like, Britannians and the Romans,

• 16:06Speaker 00

  but I gotta say, right, the sexy Scottish Vikings, it's just, it's just so much better in my head. Now, as we said already, right, we know a lot about this period from the archaeology with remaining settlements and some texts, although they are hardly historical chronicles about everyday life, especially of women. But all of this really changed in two thousand and fourteen, when one man and one metal detector came across one extraordinary discovery, buried treasure. My favourite thing in the world, divas, like, aside from Brendan Fraser in The Mummy, okay, is buried treasure. So let's get into it. What did this diva find?

• 16:49Speaker 00

  Well, while scanning a recently ploughed field in Kirkcaldy, West in Scotland, something begins beeping, which turns out to be a series of silver objects with Viking etchings. Now, no one could believe this find, okay? It truly was rarer than hen's teeth, so archaeologists are immediately contacted and also can't believe what they're hearing with Viking finds like this in Scotland so incredibly rare. And as such, rush to protect the site and goods before contacting the National Treasure Trove Unit, which, my divas, sounds like a place I'd like to work for. Now, divas, I really want to reiterate here just how immediate the response to an archaeological discovery like this is, okay?

• 17:32Speaker 00

  It genuinely was as scrupulous as a crime scene, with the tape going up, professionals getting sworn in and everything being carefully transported with as little manhandling as possible. And this was all well before anyone ever really knew the significance of what still remained beneath the mud, which turned out to be over five kilos of silver, gold and other materials which appeared to have been carefully buried and packaged over a thousand years ago. Known now as the Galloway Hoard, it turned out to be one of the most important Viking Age discoveries ever made, which begs the question, what even is a hoard and what was

• 18:15Speaker 00

  in this five kilo discovery? Well, according to National Museum Scotland, Viking Age hoards are often interpreted as hidden wealth with an intention of later retrieval. So basically, it's like, your dog, right, burying its bone and then kind of forgetting where it left it. However, some Norse sagas contain examples where wealth was buried deliberately to be accessed in the afterlife, which usually contain silver or anonymous ornaments which had been hacked into little bits for easy spending in the afterlife, which, you know, was also taken in the literal sense with some coins also being placed within. But in the Galloway Hoard, we have so much more than that in both objects and meaning.

• 18:59Speaker 00

  So let's break it down. Now, the hoard was buried in four distinct parcels, with the top layer containing a parcel of silver bullion and a rare Anglo-Saxon cross, followed by a lower layer of three parts which contained another parcel of silver bullion wrapped in leather, which was twice as big as kind of the first one that Derek had found. Then, there was a cluster of four elaborately decorated silver arm rings, which were bound together and concealed in a small wooden box, which also contained three more items of gold, textile and carefully wrapped objects, which appear to be relics or heirlooms, some

• 19:40Speaker 00

  which have travelled far and wide, including an ornate silver vessel from the ancient Persian Sassanian Empire, a jar carved from Roman rock era crystal, which FYI is my personal fave, and Scotland's earliest surviving fragments of silk. So, an incredibly rich, right, but also very fragile discovery, which is chock full of decorations, inscriptions and other details, which, through careful cleaning and examination, of course, have revealed a great deal about Viking Age Scotland and beyond. For example, some of the pieces feature Old English runes which reveal the impacts of Anglo-Saxon people, religion and culture in the northern region of Britain at the time,

• 20:24Speaker 00

  which, as we said, is now Scotland, in particular, how their influence remained in the area despite the Viking incursion. We also know one of the armbands belonged to a man called Egbert, which is also a pre-Viking English name, so the presence of this Anglo-Saxon kind of runic script, if you will, reveals the enduring impact of the Old English language and peoples while the Vikings were here, which, according to the AOC Archaeology Group, makes the Galloway Hoard the richest collection of Viking Age artefacts ever discovered in Britain. So what else does it teach us? Well, the discovery of a number of crosses, neckchains and brooches with Christian and pagan features tell us about the overlapping times in religion and the vastness of the

• 21:08Speaker 00

  find's origins, like the Roman rock crystal, for example, which shows us an aptitude for trade and travel, which really leaves us asking, you know, one big question, the one kind of remaining thing we haven't touched on. Who did this actually belong to? Well, it's a bit of a complex answer because we don't really know. You see, we do know the hoard was buried around 900 AD and as we said, contains classic Viking Age wealth such as silver armour rings and bullion, which leads to an obvious interpretation. This is Viking treasure buried by Vikings, but it's not that straightforward. For example, we know one of the armbands belonged to a man named Egbert, as we said, based on the inscription with other items like the Petrol Cross showing clear Anglo-Saxon

• 21:53Speaker 00

  and Christian iconography. The collection also contains objects originating much further afield, which, as the detective in A Good Mystery says, thickens the plot here, leaving archaeologists to answer two key questions. One, is this a hoard buried during the Viking Age? And two, is this a hoard buried by a Viking? Now, we know the answer to the first one is yes, right? But we don't know the second, something which becomes even more complex thanks to an inscription found on an armband, which British archaeologist Eleanor Gay says points to possible collective or communal ownership with four armour rings inscribed with runes, suggesting the hoard may have belonged to four different owners.

• 22:37Speaker 00

  This is then further proven by National Museum Scotland, who managed to translate one of the armbands, which was largely considered like totally indecipherable, which just tickles me pink divas because I love nothing more than like archaeologists or conservators or incredible museum workers proving people wrong. But it actually reads very directly, quote, "This is the community's wealth slash property", something which Martin Goldberg, principal curator at National Museum Scotland, marked as, quote, "A significant development" because the idea that the wealth this hoard represented would be communally held is fascinating. Still though, like I said, the big question really does remains in like, you know, what, what was this hoard for, right? We don't really know who its owners for.

• 23:22Speaker 00

  Yes, we know it might have been communal, but like, why was it then buried? And we still don't know the answer to this. However, there is one theory which goes back to the monastery of Iona, so remember like the OG raid in Scottish territory. This theory suggests that the burial of the Galloway Hoard was the act of a religious community, which makes sense with the crosses and the overlap with Christian societies, including the Anglo-Saxons, right? Who we kind of assume hid these valuables in a bid to keep them away from other Vikings and more radical Scandinavian communities at the time. That makes sense to me, like that's logical. You look at the history books, the raid on Iona, how these guys kind of came here. They like to take stuff from these kind of religious communities.

• 24:04Speaker 00

  There is also another theory around this loot being buried as a kind of offering for those original raids, similar in many ways to the story around the Trojan Horse as this kind of, you know, offering to Athena for the acts of the Trojan War, which we spoke about last month. But again, still, it really is largely unknown. Hence why such intensive study and significance is placed on the Galloway Hoard by historians, conservators and more. Speaking of which, before we go any further, I want to tell my Sydney divas that if you, like me, are a lover of Viking history, then you are in luck because the Galloway Hoard is actually in Sydney right now.

• 24:48Speaker 00

  Working in partnership with National Museum Scotland, the Australian National Maritime Museum is playing host to the famed Viking loot. And I cannot express how fabulous it is in person, guys. Like we said, right? Over five kilograms of silver, gold and other materials on display here. And of course, a super insightful deep dive into Viking history. So this really is the perfect weekend activity, giving you that dose of extra hot history. Speaking of which, divas, shall we, uh, pop down there for a little chat about how this exhibit came to life? Okay, guys, so we are here at the Australian Maritime Museum, AKA The Sea Museum in Sydney, Australia, because we are here to chat with Inga Shiel, the assisted curator of the Knowledge

• 25:33Speaker 00

  Section, who is going to tell us exactly how the Galloway Hoard has ended up on the other side of the world before we obviously go and see it for ourselves. So let's go inside.

• 25:45Speaker 00

  Now, while the Sea Museum is not one of the oldest in Australia, it is one of the most prominent, thanks to its capturing of Australia's vast and highly significant maritime history, including indigenous relationships with waterways, European exploration, immigration, maritime trade, naval history and of course, recreational life on the water. I have been coming here since I was a kid, guys, with the museum first opening in November 1991 and constantly evolving with both technology and time, with experts like Inga making sure that history remains shared and fun. So let's meet her. Well, it is such a pleasure to join you here. Thank you so much for having us, Inga.

• 26:23Speaker 01

  Welcome to the National Maritime Museum.

• 26:24Speaker 00

  Thank you. So this week on the podcast, we have been talking about Scottish Viking history and the discovery of the hoard itself, which is currently on display here. It's why we're here. Um, I'd love to hear a little bit from you about what goes into that process. You know, how do you kind of make those first kind of touchpoints to get something like the Galloway Hoard over here to Sydney?

• 26:44Speaker 01

  Well, it depends on the nature of the exhibition, but in this particular instance, um, we have belonged to a network of Australasian museum exhibition professionals. And so a couple of years ago, when the idea was first put abroad of bringing this exhibition to Australia, because of course, when it was found in 2014, it just made huge waves through the, um, through the academic world, the archaeological world, anyone who's interested in history. Um, and so when it was first suggested that maybe this could tour and maybe it could come to Australia, um, our colleagues down in, um, uh, Victoria and South Australia suggested they were developing the exhibition. And so we put our hands up and said, we are potentially interested.

• 27:25Speaker 01

  So of course it's a considerable expense to bring an exhibition like this halfway around the world, but if museums can work together, you can arrange to mitigate some of those costs. And so conceptually, all right, let's think about bringing this down. And then we have to think about, all right, what's it going to look like?

• 27:43Speaker 00

  Amazing. I love that. It's always so fascinating, the behind the scenes, like the logistics. Can you tell us a little bit more, just because I'm a bit nosy and I'm always fascinated? What goes into things like shipping and insurance and you know, even heat, like even things like lighting and storytelling, like how does that process kind of pan out?

• 28:00Speaker 01

  Oh, look, you can imagine the logistical planning that goes into something like this. Now, we all have clearly defined roles and people, I mean, I think a lot of the focus in museums often goes to the people that are the spokespeople, the curators, you know, and the senior executive. But behind that scenes, there's this whole team that is just dedicated to doing, to, to caring for objects and to displaying them and to interpreting them. So you've got the curators, we interpret, but then you've also got conservatives, they conserve. You've got a whole preps team that is building. I mean, a lot of the, um, the, um, surrounds that you see here, the scenography was built in-house by our preparators and some of them have, for example, stage experience, you know, they know how to build, build a scene that brings people into this immersive environment.

• 28:43Speaker 01

  And then we have a whole exhibitions team and they work on things like, you know, how do we negotiate contracts? What's this going to look like? And we're fortunate that we are a Commonwealth institution. So the Australian government covers our insurance, for example, through ComCover.

• 28:56Speaker 00

  Yep.

• 28:56Speaker 01

  And we work collaborating with other institutions on establishing things like provenance to make sure that all these objects are legit. So it's, it's a, it's a huge effort. It's a big team effort and everyone has their role in bringing it down here.

• 29:10Speaker 00

  Okay, Inga, so I'm really curious to know why the Galloway Hoard, right? Of all of the kind of exhibits, all the pieces from Australia and internationally, why did we want this specifically to come to the Sea Museum?

• 29:22Speaker 01

  Well, we engage in quite a lot of, um, uh, visitor engagements. So we talk to our, um, uh, people and see what would bring them into a museum? What do people want to see? And one of our top rating subjects always is Vikings. And of course, you know, we've got, there's a lot of stereotypes about Vikings, you know, they were raiders, but there's so much more to them. Um, we're looking at traders, we're looking at explorers, settlers. And it's a really complex story and it's at its heart, it's a maritime story because one of the reasons Vikings were so successful at what they did, whether it was trading, whether it was raiding, it was because they developed, um, uh, innovations in shipbuilding technology. And that's where this comes in.

• 30:06Speaker 01

  And this 3D replica of an object in Museum Scotland, um,

• 30:12Speaker 01

  Is representative of that maritime heritage. When we talked to Museums of Scotland, when we were developing what the exhibition would look like here in Sydney, we said, we want to really stress those maritime links. And they said, well, in our collection, contemporary with the Galloway Hoard, we have these ship sterns. And so they make, as you can see, a really dramatic introduction to the Horde. So this is almost like the splash page of a book, you know, like here we are, we're talking about treasures of the Galloway Hoard. So it tells us what we're all about, but it really, it's more than scene setting. It actually really introduces us to that maritime theme. And you can see, you can almost see the stepping there indicating it's a clinker-built boat. Is one of the, one of the new developments in tech, well, not new, it would have been

• 30:56Speaker 01

  around for a couple of hundred years, but the Vikings really expanded on clinker-built technology and it enabled the way that successes they were. And so, working with Museums Scotland, it was, it was collaborative. It made them, they told us, the curators there, said, oh, well, we looked at our collection again and realised there's more stories there to unpack in the objects we hold. So yeah, it's a maritime story at its heart.

• 31:16Speaker 00

  Oh my gosh, I am so excited now to see the Horde. Inga, thank you so much to Inga and the entire team here at the Australian National Maritime Museum. Can we please go and see the Galloway Hoard?

• 31:26Speaker 01

  What would I?

• 31:26Speaker 00

  Let's do it. All right, guys, this here is the Pectoral Cross, which, as we already mentioned, is one of the explicitly Christian objects found within the Horde. And my divas, let me tell you, okay, it is just as gorgeous in person. We can see here the elaborate decorative designs, including gold leaf and neeko, which is the black metallic mixture we see here, which was used to make patterns stand out against silver at the time. Now, when we say Pectoral Cross, which just really means that it was designed to be worn on the chest, usually suspended from a chain, so really kind of a pendant, if you can imagine that. Now, we can see here, if we look closely at the four arms of the cross, and we find they include the symbols traditionally associated with the four evangelists, being Matthew,

• 32:09Speaker 00

  Mark, Luke and John, which again, guys, adds to this idea of mixed origin for the Horde, pointing towards a Scandinavian slash Viking owner who accumulated Anglo-Saxon objects through raiding, an Anglo-Saxon or other local person hiding wealth during Viking era instability, or someone whose identity mixed Norse, Anglo-Saxon, Irish and other influences, which wouldn't have been unusual, given the mix of people at the time, and which we see through the various pieces in the exhibit here, which are just so incredibly well put together, guys. Like genuinely, as you move through the space, everything has been so considered and thought of with love and attention. All right, let's look at some more pieces, the big one of which is this one.

• 32:52Speaker 00

  Okay, guys, my favourite piece of the Galloway Hoard is definitely this right here, the rock crystal jar. So for those listeners who can't see here, this thing is teeny tiny, at only about 5.2 centimetres high and 4.6 centimetres wide. But for what it lacks in size, it packs a punch in beauty, okay? Now, when this was first discovered, it had been carefully wrapped in linen, put inside a leather pouch lined with silk, and then placed with other treasure inside a littered vessel, so very, very well protected, something which suggests that whoever owned it obviously loved it, so much so that some historians believe it may have been a reliquary or sacred object. Some think that National Museums Scotland have helped confirm by revealing an inscription

• 33:34Speaker 00

  via X-ray which read, quote, "Bishop Hjagold ordered this to be made." As for the materials, we see this incredible gold here, which is intrinsically braided and curved into various designs, but the real star, of course, is the rock crystal, which actually dates back to the Roman period. And if it is turned upside down, we see it shares the same shape as the top of a Corinthian column, which begs the question, guys, what was it used for then? Regardless though, it was given a new life here, with a small hollow section inside and spout at the top, suggesting it could have contained some kind of precious liquid, perhaps perfume or oil even? But there's no certainty in this either, with National Museums Scotland pointing out

• 34:16Speaker 00

  that the transparency of the crystal means it could also have displayed a small solid object inside it. Truthfully, we don't really know though. But regardless, I am just happy to actually be able to see this in person, guys, and look at how gorgeous it is. There's so many other incredible pieces which make up this Horde, like the armbands, for example, and of course, the shiny gold pieces. But each of these are all essential in building our knowledge of Viking Scotland, the interconnection between the Scots, the Anglo-Saxons, the Scandinavians and more, plus, guys, the relationship between the Christian and pagan faiths at the time. But how good is a museum, okay? Like, nothing will make me ever turn my back on the benefits and the experience of first-hand history.

• 34:59Speaker 00

  It is another level of learning and like connection. And I'm just so grateful that we have amazing people and teams like Inga and the National Museums Scotland, who bring exhibits like this to life. And, guys, of course, the Sea Museum, right? Without whom this episode of Hot History wouldn't be possible, so a huge shout out to them. So now that we get the background history and an understanding of Viking Scotland, plus the details of the Galloway Hoard itself, there's one last thing to come back to before wrapping up this episode. Because it's a really fascinating part of historical discovery, when a normal person finds something of historical significance. Because this does happen more than you'd think, guys. For example, the case of Sue, the T-Rex.

• 35:43Speaker 00

  And I know it's a bit of a tangent, guys, but like, I think it's important to cover here to kind of finish this off. So let's take a little flashback to August 1990, where renowned fossil hunter Sue Hendrickson was working with the commercial paleontology company Black Hills Institute of Geological Research, run by brothers Peter and Neil Larson. Now, this was not out of the ordinary, right? It's pretty standard, with the brothers being invited by Morris Williams, a member of the Cheyenne River Sioux tribe, to dig on his land in South Dakota. So they're all kind of out there, they're chipping and chiseling away, until Sue spots what she believes to be a vertebrae sticking out of a bluff, which the team eventually

• 36:24Speaker 00

  excavated, finding roughly 90% of a total Tyrannosaurus Rex skeleton, who they named Sue. Knowing this was an extraordinary find, the Black Hills Institute paid Williams $5,000 for the fossil, maintaining that the payment transferred ownership of the fossil to them, which would have been, probably, like, all well and fine. However, Williams Ranch was an ordinary private property. It was Indian trust land, which was legally held by the United States government. Now, this then led to years and years of back and forth legal drama, which resulted

• 37:05Speaker 00

  in federal authorities raiding the Black Hills Institute and seizing Sue, one of the brothers, Peter, going to prison, and then after kind of all of this drama, after years and years and years, Sue eventually reverted back to Williams's ownership, who in turn sold her via Sotheby's for $8.39 million in 1997, with McDonald's and Disney pitching in the funds to ensure Sue could go to a museum and be enjoyed by the public. So this is a sticky world, right? And one which is in no way, shape or form black and white, with archaeologists and the relevant teams often not being given the notice or the chance to preserve, examine and learn from items found.

• 37:46Speaker 00

  But luckily for us, the incredible team of conservators, historians and archaeologists were able to really take charge and have worked their magic on the Galloway Hoard, which means that I hereby dubbed the team at National Museums Scotland, Hot Historians. And of course, guys, the Australian National Maritime Museum team, who brought this amazing piece of Scottish Viking history to our own shores. If you would like to go and see the incredible Galloway Hoard, first, one, cannot recommend it enough, it really does give you such a valuable perspective on the history. And secondly, my divas, you can actually get 10% off right now if you book your tickets online at sea.museum.

• 38:28Speaker 00

  So whether you are looking for a family day out, you perhaps have a hot date lined up or just a solo museum sesh, the Galloway Hoard is an epic way to get up close and personal with history. Go ahead and book those tickets, like we said, at sea.museum, which we will link in the show notes below. And thank you so much again to the Australian National Maritime Museum for making this episode of Hot History possible. Which brings us to the end of another episode of Hot History, guys. Thank you so much for listening along and make sure to tune in next week because we are going from Scottish Vikings to Angolan warrior queens, fighting off both the patriarchy

• 39:08Speaker 00

  and slavers through her wildly sharp wit and wildly sharp weaponry. This is the story of Njinga Mbande and I cannot wait to share it with you all. Until then, if you're looking for some more hot history, you can follow us on Instagram and Substack at Hot History Club and on YouTube and TikTok at hot/history. It has been a pleasure getting down and dirty in time with you and I will see you all next week. Thanks, guys. Love you. Bye.

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