Norrie's Law hoard is a sixth century

silver Silver is a chemical element with the symbol Ag (from the Latin ', derived from the Proto-Indo-European ''h₂erǵ'': "shiny" or "white") and atomic number 47. A soft, white, lustrous transition metal, it exhibits the highest electrical ...

hoard discovered in 1819 at a small

mound A mound is a heaped pile of earth, gravel, sand, rocks, or debris. Most commonly, mounds are earthen formations such as hills and mountains, particularly if they appear artificial. A mound may be any rounded area of topographically higher ...

in Largo, Fife, Scotland. Found by an unknown person or persons, most of the hoard was illegally sold or given away. Remaining items of the hoard were found later at the mound, and were turned over to the landowner, General Philip Durham. The surviving 170-piece hoard now is in the

National Museum of Scotland The National Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh, Scotland, was formed in 2006 with the merger of the new Museum of Scotland, with collections relating to Scottish antiquities, culture and history, and the adjacent Royal Scottish Museum (opened in ...

. The treasure consists mostly of

hacksilver Hacksilver (sometimes referred to as hacksilber) consists of fragments of cut and bent silver items that were used as bullion or as currency by weight in antiquity. Use Hacksilver was common among the Norsemen or Vikings, as a result of both t ...

and includes four complete silver pieces.

Description

Norrie's Law hoard is one of the largest

Pictish Pictish is the extinct Brittonic language spoken by the Picts, the people of eastern and northern Scotland from Late Antiquity to the Early Middle Ages. Virtually no direct attestations of Pictish remain, short of a limited number of geographica ...

hoards ever to be found. The hoard originally contained of late Roman and

silver. Less than of the hoard remains. Consisting of 170 pieces of primarily

, the treasure also contains complete silver metalwork, including a penanular brooch, a leaf-shaped oval plaque with Pictish symbols, a large hand-pin, and a worn spiral finger-ring. Incomplete items include part of a

Roman Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *'' Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a lette ...

spoon, pieces of silver sheet from a plate and incomplete spiral bracelets. The hoard's pieces of cut and folded silver were used for their silver bullion value and were often traded or recycled into new objects. The hoard also contained two Late Roman coins which were melted down and sold soon after the initial discovery.

History

The hoard was found in 1819 by an unknown discoverer or discoverers at a small tumulus known as Norrie's Law, which is located on the Largo Estate in Fife. The mound was built of stones and sat on an elevated bank of sand and gravel. The discovery occurred while the anonymous finder(s) were digging sand at the base of the mound. The silver found at the site was given to a peddler who later sold most of the items as scrap silver to be melted down. Some of the items were given away. The landowner, General Durham, learned of the hoard after most of the silver had been sold off. He was able to locate the remaining items of the hoard that had not been uncovered in the first excavation. Durham kept the discovery of the treasure secret for 20 years. In 1839 a local antiquarian, George Buist, investigated local accounts of the hoard and published an account of the discovery for the local archaeological society. Buist had pewter copies made of two objects from the hoard, the decorated plaque and the large hand-pin. General Durham died in 1845 without descendants. The Largo estate passed to Lilas Dundas Calderwood Durham (Mrs Robert Dundas of Arniston), who donated most of the surviving hoard pieces to the Museum of Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, now the National Museum of Scotland, in 1864. The remainder of the hoard was donated to the museum by her heir, Robert Dundas of Arniston, in 1883. The fourth century Roman coins from the hoard suggest that it must have been buried sometime after the early fifth century AD. More recent research conducted by the Glenmorangie Research Project at the National Museum of Scotland date the hoard to the sixth century AD. The study also determined that two silver copies of the hoard items were made around 1839. The silver copies of the Pictish-decorated plaque and large hand-pin, were believed until recently to be original early medieval metalwork.

References

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External links

National Museum of Scotland video on the hoardGlemorangie Research Project
Hoards of jewellery Celtic archaeological artifacts Treasure troves in Scotland Picts 7th century in Scotland Collections of the National Museums of Scotland

Description

History

See also

References

Further reading

External links