The Galloway Hoard Exhibit through September 12, 2021 at the National Museum of Scotland

Discovered by a metal detectorist in Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland in 2014, the Galloway Hoard, buried around 900 CE, contains over 100 diverse objects, from silver, gold and jewelled treasures to rarely surviving textiles, including wool, linen and Scotland’s earliest examples of silk. 

 It is thought that the hoard was buried some time in the mid-ninth or tenth century, though it is not known why it was buried. The hoard consists of a variety of gold and silver objects including armbands, a silver pectoral cross, brooches, ingots, and what is possibly the largest silver Carolingian pot ever discovered. The pot was one of the older items in the hoard and may have been more than 100 years old by the time it was deposited. It is made of a silver alloy and was found wrapped in the remains of a cloth, with its lid still in place. It contained a collection of silver Anglo-Saxon disc brooches, an Irish silver brooch, Byzantine silk from the area around Constantinople, a gold ingot and gold and crystal objects wrapped in cloth. 

Five of the silver armbands have runic inscriptions scratched on them. Although the hoard is considered to be a Viking hoard, the inscriptions are written in Anglo-Saxon runes, and they record Anglo-Saxon names, possibly some of the original owners of part of the hoard. The items among the treasure originated across a wide geographic area that includes Ireland, Scandinavia, and central Europe. 

The hoard was buried in two discrete levels. The more valuable objects – the gold items and the Carolingian pot – were more deeply buried, while the upper level consisted of smaller and less valuable items which would have been the equivalent of "loose change" in the Viking bullion economy.

After the exhibition ends at the National Museum of Scotland, it will tour on to Kirkcudbright Galleries from 9 October to 2021 to 10 July 2022 then on to Aberdeen Museum and Art Gallery from 30 July to 23 October 2022.

Selection of objects from the Galloway Hoard, 9th - 10th century CE, courtesy of Wikimedia Commons and the National Museum of Scotland.

Ornamented silver pectoral cross with wire chain. The cross is decorated with what appears to be gilding and niello, each arm ornamented with a motif and there appears to be an ornamentation missing from the centre. A chain of coiled silver wire is wrapped around the arms. The cross is from the Galloway Hoard, 9th - 10th century CE, courtesy of Wikimedia Commons and the National Museum of Scotland.

An Anglo-Saxon disc brooch from the Galloway Hoard, , 9th - 10th century CE, courtesy of Wikimedia Commons and the National Museum of Scotland.

A hinged mount with Anglo-Saxon Trewhiddle-style decoration from the Galloway Hoard, , 9th - 10th century CE, courtesy of Wikimedia Commons and the National Museum of Scotland.

A gold bird pin thought to be unique from the Galloway Hoard, , 9th - 10th century CE, courtesy of Wikimedia Commons and the National Museum of Scotland.

A selection of beads, including a large 'melon' style bead with ribbed edge, clear glass, slightly yellowed, from the Galloway Hoard, 9th - 10th century CE, courtesy of Wikimedia Commons and the National Museum of Scotland.

Anglo-Saxon quatrefoil brooch from the Galloway Hoard, , 9th - 10th century CE, courtesy of Wikimedia Commons and the National Museum of Scotland.

If you enjoyed this post, never miss out on future posts by following me by email!

Ancient Fibulae

Fibulae replaced straight pins that were used to fasten clothing in the Neolithic period and the Bronze Age. The first fibulae design, known as the violin bow fibulae appeared in the late Bronze Age. This simple design, with a unilateral spring, looks remarkably like a modern safety pin. The violin bow fibula has a low flat arch with the body running parallel to the pin so it resembles a violin bow. The bow could be round, square, or flat and ribbon-like in cross-section. Some had simple punched or incised decoration on the bow. Violin bow fibula were  introduced in the 14th century BCE by the Myceneans on the Greek Peloponnesus. The fibula soon spread to Crete, Cyprus and Mycenean trading posts in Sicily. 

While the head of the earlier straight pin was often decorated, the bow or plate of the fibula provided a much increased scope for decoration. During the Iron Age, the use of fibulae became more widespread and were usually highly decorated among the elite, with incised or moulded geometric designs.

The classic fibula of the late-Roman era, and in fact the best known of all fibula types, is the crossbow type. The crossbow fibula consists of a highly arched semi-circular bow, usually of squarish cross-section, and a long flat foot. The fibula has a wide transverse bar (or arms) at the head containing the pin-hinge.

Among some cultures, different fibula designs had specific symbolic meanings. They could refer to a status or profession such as single woman, married woman, man, warrior, or chief. Some Roman-era fibulae symbolized specific ranks or positions in the Roman legions or auxiliary. In some cultures, fibulae were worn in pairs and could be linked by a length of chain. 

A penile fibula, developed by the Romans from the Greek use of the kynodesmē, was a ring, attached with a pin through the foreskin to fasten it above the glans penis. Scholars think it was used to promote modesty when appearing nude in public such as participation in athletic competitions, or in the belief that it helped preserve an orator's voice.  It was also used by masters on their slaves to prevent intercourse. Penile fibulae were frequent subjects of ridicule among satirists in Rome. Somehow, I doubt if Marc Antony bothered with modesty when participating in the Lupercalia, though!

Gilded bronze crossbow fibula, 300-365 CE, at the Gallo-Roman Museum, Tongeren courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.

A east Germanic bow brooch crafted of silver with gold-sheet overlay and inlaid garnets, 400-450 CE at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.

The De Braganza Fibula, 250-200 BCE, Greek, from the Iberian Peninsula, now in the British Museum.

Germanic fibula with Gold plating on silver with inlaid garnet, glass, enamel, 430 CE, at the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna, Austria courtesy of Wikimedia Commons contributor James Steakley

If you enjoyed this post, never miss out on future posts by following me by email!

The Ancient Art of Niello

Mycenaean dagger with niello-accented lion hunt scene, 1550 BCE, at the National Archaeological Museum in Athens courtesy of Wikimedia Commons contributor παρακάτω.

Niello is a black mixture, usually of sulphur, copper, silver, and lead, used as an inlay on engraved or etched metal, especially silver. It is added as a powder or paste, then fired until it melts or at least softens, and flows or is pushed into the engraved lines or shapes in the metal. It hardens and blackens when cool, and the niello on the flat surface is polished off to show the filled lines in black, contrasting with the polished metal (usually silver) around it. The metal where niello is to be placed is often roughened to promote adhesion.

Niello was used on a variety of objects including sword hilts, chalices, plates, horns, adornment for horses, jewelry such as bracelets, rings, pendants, and small fittings such as strap-ends, purse-bars, buttons, and belt buckles and was also used to fill in the letters in inscriptions engraved on metal. Though historically most common in Europe, it is also known from many parts of Asia and the Near East.

The earliest claimed use of niello appears in late Bronze Age Byblos in Syria, around 1800 BCE, in inscriptions in hieroglyphs on "scimitars". In Ancient Egypt it appears a little later, in the tomb of Queen Ahhotep II, who lived about 1550 BCE, on a dagger decorated with a lion chasing a calf in a rocky landscape in a style that shows Greek influence, or at least similarity to the roughly contemporary daggers from Mycenae, and perhaps other objects in the tomb. At about the same time of c.1550 BCE it appears on several bronze daggers from shaft grave royal tombs at Mycenae (in Grave Circle A and Grave Circle B), especially in long thin scenes running along the center of the blade. These show the violence typical of the art of Mycenaean Greece, as well as a sophistication in both technique and figurative imagery that is startlingly original in a Greek context. There are a number of scenes of lions hunting and being hunted, attacking men and being attacked; most are now in the National Archaeological Museum, Athens.

Pliny the Elder (CE 23–79) describes the technique as Egyptian, and comments on the oddness of decorating silver in this way. Some of the earliest Roman uses, from 1-300 CE, seem to be small statuettes and brooches of big cats, where niello is used for the stripes of tigers and the spots on panthers. These were very common in Roman art, as creatures of Bacchus. Small animal brooches were worn both by Roman soldiers stationed in the provinces and by the native population. Though brooches in these forms appear throughout the Roman world, the distribution of finds and the archaeological remains of workshops suggest that the major centers of production were Britain and Gaul. The animal repertoire of Roman Britain was somewhat different, however, where brooches with niello stripes depicted a hare and a cat. From about the 4th century CE, it was used for ornamental details such as borders and for inscriptions in late Roman silver, such as a dish and bowl in the Mildenhall Treasure and pieces in the Hoxne Hoard. It was also often used on spoons, which were inscribed with the owner's name, or later, on Byzantine crosses.

Silver panther brooch with niello spots, Roman, 100-300 CE, courtesy of the Metropolitan Museum of Art

Late Roman silver, gilt, and niello buckle from Gaul, 400 CE, courtesy of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

If you enjoyed this post, never miss out on future posts by following me by email!