Silver Beyond Empire

Alice Blackwell is Senior Curator of Medieval archaeology & history at National Museums Scotland and works on the material culture of the early, central and later middle ages. She has co-authored several books – Early Medieval Scotland: Individuals, Communities and Ideas (2012) and Scotland’s early silver (2017) which developed from a special exhibition she jointly curated in Edinburgh. She also edited Scotland in early Medieval Europe (2018). Fraser Hunter is principal curator of Iron Age and Roman collections at National Museums Scotland. His research work focuses around understanding Iron Age decorative metalwork (“Celtic art”) in its European context and the impact of the Roman world on the peoples of Scotland. He recently co-edited a new appraisal of the Traprain Treasure (2022), the largest hoard of Roman hacksilver from anywhere within or beyond the Empire. He co-curated Scotland’s early silver and Celts (2015), a major exhibition developed in partnership with the British Museum. Andreas Rau is a Senior Researcher at Leibniz-Zentrum für Archäologie (previously Centre for Baltic and Scandinavian Archaeology) in Schleswig, Germany. Andreas has published widely on Iron Age, Roman and Migration period archaeology including on hacksilver hoarding in southern Scandinavia, and on the deposits at Nydam, Denmark. He has curated displays on the Nydam ships in Schlesewig. Martin Goldberg is Principal Curator of Medieval archaeology and history at National Museums Scotland. Martin works on early medieval and viking-age material culture and co-curated Celts and Scotland’s early silver. He is currently leading a major project on the viking-age Galloway hoard in collaboration with the University of Glasgow.

• Chapter 1. The circulation of Roman silver in the 4th and 5th centuries around and across the frontierFraser HunterChapter 2. Silver for the Soldiers: quantifying the use and absence of silver among the limitanei of the dux BritanniarumRob CollinsChapter 3. Hacksilver hoarding and silver use in 5th/6th-century ScotlandAlice Blackwell & Martin GoldbergChapter 4. Silver in the societies of Roman Iron Age and Migration Period Scandinavia – with a focus on hacksilver of the 4th–6th centuriesAndreas RauChapter 5. Denarii in late Roman and Migration Period hoardsAleksander Bursche & Kyrylo MyzginChapter 6. Silver in the Merovingian realm: a post-monetary economy between the late Roman and the Carolingian EmpireDieter QuastChapter 7. Hacksilver in late Antiquity, the Merovingian period and Slavic times. Structural similarities or continuity?Matthias HardtChapter 8. Object biographies of silver objects in the Quoit Brooch Style of south-east Britain: manufacture, use and reuseEllen SwiftChapter 9. Patching, West Sussex: the nature of the hacksilver and the date of the hoardFraser Hunter & Andreas RauChapter 10. The early medieval hacksilver hoard from Wem, ShropshireRoger H. White, Richard Hobbs & Richard AbdyChapter 11. Scotland’s silver spiral rings in contextJenna MartinChapter 12. A reconsideration of silver handpinsSusan YoungsChapter 13. Hillquarter and the Norrie’s Law and Gaulcross mounts: saddle or shield?Joanna Close-BrooksChapter 14. The siliquae from Gaulcross and Norrie’s Law in contextRichard AbdyChapter 15. The scientific examination and analysis of the Gaulcross and Norrie’s Law silver hoardsLore Troalen, Janet Lang & Jim TateChapter 16. Silver-working at the Craw Stane complex, Rhynie in north-east ScotlandGemma Cruickshanks & Gordon NobleCatalogue 1: The Norrie’s Law hoard, Fife, ScotlandAlice Blackwell & Fraser Hunter, with Richard Abdy & Martin GoldbergCatalogue 2: The Gaulcross hoard, Aberdeenshire, ScotlandAlice Blackwell & Fraser Hunter, with Richard AbdyCatalogue 3: The Tummel Bridge hoard, Perthshire, ScotlandAlice Blackwell & Fraser HunterCatalogue 4: The Patching hacksilver, West Sussex, EnglandFraser HunterCatalogue 5: The Wem hoard, Shropshire, EnglandRoger H White, Richard Hobbs & Richard AbdyCatalogue 6: The ‘Cavan’ bangle, Armargh, Northern IrelandAlice BlackwellTechnical appendix 1: Technological observations of the Gaulcross silverLore Troalen, Julia Novion Ducassou & Janet LangTechnical appendix 2: Investigation of a selection of objects from the Gaulcross and Norrie’s Law silver hoardsLore Troalen & Janet LangTechnical appendix 3: Quantitative analysis of a selection of Gaulcross and Norrie’s Law silver fragments by particle-induced X-ray emission analysisLore Troalen, Jim Tate & Quentin LemassonTechnical appendix 4: Surface analysis of the Norrie’s Law silver by X-ray fluorescenceData by Susy Kirk, with interpretation and text by Lore Troalen