When archaeologists excavated the trove of Viking silver discovered by metal detector enthusiasts in Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland, in 2014, they unearthed more than 100 precious objects—silver ingots, solid gold and silver jewelry, glass beads—from multiple countries and cultures. Buried deep in a second excavated layer was a silver alloy pot with its lid still in place and sealed shut. The form and decoration of the vessel identified it as a piece of Carolingian manufacture made in western Europe between 780 and 900 CE.
Unfortunately, the silver alloy had some copper in it. As the copper eroded it weakened the pot. Opening the lid might destroy the entire thing, so archaeologists decided to have a CT scan done first, and check what was inside. The scans revealed an Anglo-Saxon openwork brooch, four more silver brooches, gold ingots, and ivory beads coated in gold, each piece individually wrapped in an organic material, perhaps a textile to protect it.
Anglo-Saxon jewelry inside a Carolingian pot, inside a Viking hoard, in Scotland. It’s a Russian nesting doll of an archaeological find!
