Since its discovery in 2014, various theories and possibilities have been put forward, suggesting that the Galloway Hoard may have been buried by four owners based on four arm-rings inscribed with Anglo-Saxon runes.
Three feature Old English name elements, but the fourth and longest had confounded experts and remained undeciphered as there was no recognisable direct translation.
However, a new theory proposed by the team at National Museums Scotland who have been studying the hoard runs, in translation, “this is the community’s wealth/property”.
Martin Goldberg from National Museums Scotland said:
“This is another really interesting and significant development in our understanding of the Galloway Hoard. The idea that the wealth this hoard represents would be communally held is fascinating. It does still leave us with unanswered questions around the circumstances in which a community’s wealth would come to be buried, and also which particular community. Some material within the hoard, such as the pectoral cross and the rock crystal jar made for a Bishop Hyguald, would support this being a religious community. .”
Carved inside the curved half of the arm-ring the runes read: DIS IS ЇIGNA ˑFˑ. The main issue was the word ‘ ЇIGNAF’, which did not correspond to any language spoken in early medieval Britain or Ireland. The discovery that the final rune, F, was marked out with puncts, or dots, to either side, indicating it could be understood as the name of the F-rune itself ‘feoh’ [wealth or property] unlocked the new translation. ‘ ЇIGNA’ could then be interpreted as the Old English word ‘higna’ [community] with the first letter spelled in an unusual but comprehensible way.
The first word also seems to be misspelled if as seems likely it represents “this” – perhaps it was pronounced DIS, much as it would be in some parts of modern Ireland. Despite these apparent spelling (or pronunciation) mistakes, the full inscription can be translated as “this is the community’s wealth/property” with the word ‘higna’ often used elsewhere in Anglo-Saxon documents to indicate a religious community.
Leading runologist Dr David Parsons (University of Wales) who has previously translated other runic inscriptions from the Galloway Hoard said:
“This is a difficult and unusual inscription, and the proposed translation is challenging. There are a number of things which are technically ‘wrong’ when we compare it with what we know about ‘correct’ runic writing. However, if we think about both spoken and written English today, there are a huge range of regional and idiomatic variations and, if we allow for this, then it becomes possible to accept this as a plausible reading. And in the context of what can deduce about the Galloway Hoard it becomes really quite compelling.”
The new finding comes at the conclusion of a three-year research project, Unwrapping the Galloway Hoard, which was supported by the UKRI Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC), led by National Museums Scotland in partnership with the University of Glasgow.
AHRC executive chair Christopher Smith, said:
“It has been fascinating to see the succession of significant discoveries over the life of the Unwrapping the Galloway Hoard project, from the exotic origins of some of its star pieces to the presence of named individuals and now this latest exciting discovery. We’re delighted to have supported this work and in particular welcome the volume of public interest and engagement it has so frequently generated. It serves as a prime example of how the power of arts and humanities research to shine a light on past cultures and the people who lived within them resonates in our own world.”
The arm ring will be on display at the South Australian Museum in Adelaide as part of a new international touring exhibition, Treasures of the Viking Age: The Galloway Hoard, which opens on Saturday 8 Feb.
The exhibition shows how the Hoard was buried in four distinct parcels and as the visitor is drawn further into this ancient world each parcel becomes richer and more unusual. The top layer was a parcel of silver bullion and a rare Anglo-Saxon cross, separated from a lower layer of three parts: firstly, another parcel of silver bullion wrapped in leather and twice as big as the one above; secondly, a cluster of four elaborately decorated silver ‘ribbon’ arm-rings bound together and concealing in their midst a small wooden box containing three items of gold; and thirdly, a lidded, silver gilt vessel wrapped in layers of textile and packed with carefully wrapped objects that appear to have been curated like relics or heirlooms. They include beads, pendants, brooches, bracelets, relics and other curios, often strung or wrapped with silk. It was recently revealed that the origins of the vessel itself could be traced to the Sassanian Empire and indeed to a specific mine in modern-day Iran.
Decoding the secrets of the Galloway Hoard has also been a multi-layered process. Decorations, inscriptions, and other details hidden for over a thousand years have been revealed through careful conservation, painstaking cleaning, and cutting-edge research by a team of experts led by National Museums Scotland.
Many of the objects are types that have never been seen before in Britain and Ireland. Some had travelled thousands of miles to reach Scotland. Some items are now too fragile to travel long distances, particularly those which still have rare traces of textiles that have survived for more than 1000 years. The exhibition will employ audio visual and 3D reconstructions to enable visitors to experience these objects and learn more about the detailed research that is being done.
The Galloway Hoard was acquired by National Museums Scotland in 2017 with the support of the National Heritage Memorial Fund, Art Fund, and the Scottish Government, as well as a major public fundraising campaign. Since then, it has been undergoing extensive conservation and research at the National Museums Collection Centre in Edinburgh. Further venues for the international tour will be announced in due course, as will plans for the hoard’s future display after the tour’s conclusion, including in Kirkcudbright, near where it was discovered.
In 2020, the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) awarded £1 million for the three-year research project *Unwrapping the Galloway Hoard*, led by National Museums Scotland in partnership with the University of Glasgow. The project has also seen collaboration with experts from across the UK and Ireland, including The British Museum, Oxford University, University of Wales (Trinity St David), St Andrews University, and University College Cork.
