Orkney Smr Note

Event ID 619768

Category Descriptive Accounts

Type Orkney Smr Note

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/619768

Great hoard of silver objects found at Skaill, Sandwick.

Detailed description given. [R1]

Early in 1858 a very remarkable hoard of silver ornaments,

coins,etc. of the Viking period, weighing 16 pounds, was found to

consist of at least nine large penannular brooches, fourteen

twisted neck rings and arm rings, twenty-three solid armlets of

penannular form, eleven ingots and bars of silver, and numerous

fragments of other ornaments, which had been cut into small

pieces. None of the hoards of this character found in the

Scandanavian countries contains such a large number of personal

ornaments. Along with these ornaments there were three

Anglo Saxon and seven Cufic coins, the latest of which was struck

at Bagdad in A.D.945, and consequently fixes the earliest date by

which the deposit can have been made. Most of the hoard is now in

the National Museum; it has frequently been described in whole or

in part. [R2]

It is argued that two Viking-age silvers objects, a complete

single pin and an elaborately ornamented pin head, recently

purchased by the National Museum, derive from the 1858 Skaill

(Orkney) hoard... [R3]

Recent excavations have been conducted on the mound of Snusgar where the hoard is believed to have been found. See DSR of excavation.

Information from Orkney SMR [n.d.]