With any hoard, some of the most common questions are about who buried it, and why. Usually, Viking-age hoards of silver are a mix of anonymous ornaments, often hacked into pieces. If we’re lucky, there may be coins which at least help us…

The lidded vessel in the Galloway Hoard is like a hoard within a hoard. It was carefully packed to the brim with 27 objects. But the vessel is a treasure in its own right.

When the Galloway Hoard was first unearthed in 2014, its piles of silver arm-rings and ingots made it seem like a classic Viking hoard. The more that we learn about it, the less ‘Viking’ it looks, even as it continues to give us incredible…