Today's Object of the Week is one of Britian's most significant Viking finds, which was metal detected in a North Yorkshire field.
The Vale of York Hoard, one of Britain's most significant Viking finds, was discovered in 2007.
This 10th-century treasure, consisting of 617 silver coins and 65 other items, was unearthed near Harrogate, North Yorkshire, by David Whelan and his son, Andrew, in a ploughed field near Harrogate, North Yorkshire.
The discovery, which includes a gold arm-ring and a gilt silver vessel, was described as Britain's most important Viking find in 150 years.
At first the pair thought they had discovered an old toiled ballcock - but when coins started spilling out of the top they realised they had made an extraordinary find.
David, from Leeds, said at the time: "It was a muddy January morning. We were in a muddy field digging down.
"We got some lead out and some more lead and this round ball covered in mud.
"I could see these bits of silver on the top and the coin stuck in it, so I called Andrew back.
"We got all the bits out and made sure we had everything and went home to decide what to do with it."
The hoard includes 617 silver coins, more than 60 pieces of silver - including arm rings, ingots and fragments of jewellery - and frangemts of lead that once fomed a cover for the cup.
The coins and jewellery came from all over the world, including Samarkand in present-day Uzbekistan, North Africa, Afghanistan, Russia, Ireland, Scandinavia, and continental Europe, illustrating the breadth of the Vikings' travels and trade connections.
The cup is a rare treasure itself, decorated with six roundels each containing an animal - a lion, a wild cat, a steer, a stag - and antelope and a wild horse - surrounded by leaf designs.
The cup is so closely paralleled by the Halton Moor cup, conserved in the British Museum, that both must be from the same Carolingian workshop and were produced in the mid-ninth century. By the time it was buried, it was probably already 100-years-old.
The coins date from the late 9th and early 10th centuries, and bear Islamic, Christian, and pre-Christian Norse pagan symbols.
The hoard was declared treasure under the Treasure Act 1996 at a treasure trove inquest in Harrogate in July 2007.
This Act requires the find to be offered for sale to museums, with the proceeds divided by agreement between the discoverers and the landowner.
Coroner Geoff Fell, at the time of the inquest, said: "I am delighted that such an important Viking hoard has been discovered in North Yorkshire.
"We are extremely proud of our Viking heritage in this area.
"This is of international significance.
"I am still intrigued as to how it ended up where it did."
One theory as to a likely 10th-century occasion for such careful burying was that it had belonged to a wealthy Viking leader during the unrest that followed the conquest of the Viking kingdom of Northumbria in the year 927 by the Anglo-Saxon king of a unified England, Athelstan (924–939).
Another brief period of Viking rule in Northumbria also followed Athelstan's death in 939 - it lasted until the expulsion and murder of the Viking king of Jórvík (modern-day York), Eric Bloodaxe, in 954.
The hoard was valued at £1,082,000 by the independent Treasure Valuation Committee and was purchased jointly by York Museums Trust and the British Museum with funding from the National Heritage Memorial Fund, The Art Fund, and The British Museum Friends.
Share