Watlington Hoard

The Watlington Hoard is a collection of Viking silver, buried in the 870s and rediscovered in Watlington, Oxfordshire, England in 2015.

Watlington Hoard
MaterialSilver, Gold
Created9th century
Period/cultureViking
DiscoveredWatlington, Oxfordshire, by James Mather, 2015
Present locationBritish Museum

Details

The hoard is made up of silver – 186 coins (some fragmentary), 15 ingots and 7 pieces of jewellery, including arm-rings – and a scrap of gold.[1] It was buried after Alfred the Great defeated the Great Heathen Army led by Guthrum in 878, forcing the Danes to retreat north.[2] The hoard was rediscovered by James Mather, an amateur metal-detectorist, in 2015 and subsequently excavated.[3]

The period in which the hoard was buried saw extensive warfare between the Danish and Anglo-Saxon kingdoms, and is of considerable interest to historians.[4] The coins, which were minted by Alfred the Great and Ceolwulf II, have "the potential to provide important new information on relations between Mercia and Wessex" in the 9th century, according to Gareth Williams, a curator at the British Museum.[2] Some of the coins show the two kings sitting side by side, in a style known as the "Two Emperors", after Roman coins of the 4th century.[4] These coins would have been intended to make a statement about political cooperation between the two men.[4]

It was announced in February 2017 that the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford had purchased the hoard for £1.35m, to keep it within the county, with funding from the National Lottery, the Art Fund and local donations.[5]

References
  1. "Rare Viking hoard from time of the'Last Kingdom' found in Oxfordshire", British Museum, retrieved 13 December 2015; Kennedy, Maev (10 December 2015), "Watlington hoard of Viking silver casts light on Alfred the Great era", The Guardian, retrieved 13 December 2015
  2. "Rare Viking hoard from time of the'Last Kingdom' found in Oxfordshire", British Museum, retrieved 13 December 2015; Burghart 2016, p. 14
  3. Kennedy, Maev (10 December 2015), "Watlington hoard of Viking silver casts light on Alfred the Great era", The Guardian, retrieved 13 December 2015
  4. Burghart 2016, p. 14
  5. "Watlington hoard: Relics purchased for £1.35m by Ashmolean Museum", BBC News, February 2017, retrieved 2 February 2017

Bibliography
  • Burghart, Alex (2016). "Two Emperors: How a Recent Discovery Alters our View of Alfred the Great". Times Literary Supplement (5883).

Further reading
  • Naylor, John; Standley, Eleanor, eds. (2022). The Watlington Hoard: Coinage, Kings and the Viking Great Army in Oxfordshire. Archaeopress. ISBN 978-178969829-9.
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