In 2014, an amateur metal detectorist scanning a field in Western Scotland came across a once-in-a-lifetime discovery. The thrilling cache of silver bullion, gold, textiles, rock crystal and other rare artefacts had been buried more than 1,100 years ago, its unearthing prompting a major fundraising drive that allowed the collection to be retained for the British public instead of passing into private hands.

Buried in four layers, the Galloway Hoard was imagined at first to be the hidden spoils of Viking raids, the top layer of silver bullion and an Anglo-Saxon silver pectoral cross – on display in this exhibition at the South Australian Museum – thought to be placed there to trick thieves away from the richer spoils below, though subsequent analysis revised this view. The presence of the cross was puzzling; it was rare to find both Anglo-Saxon and Christian artefacts in Viking-age hoards, suggesting at first that the hoard had been buried by priests.

Since its discovery, the Galloway Hoard has been the subject of ongoing research to solve these 1,100-year-old riddles. The latest three-year project, ‘Unwrapping the Galloway Hoard’ is led by Dr Martin Goldberg, principal curator of Medieval Archaeology and History at National Museums Scotland together with a large multi-disciplinary team and in partnership with the University of Glasgow.

Photo: Sia Duff / Supplied

A leather-wrapped bundle of silver ingots twice as large as the one above was found in the next layer, making up a total of over five kilograms of silver, the second largest cache found in the country since 1867. The way some of these silver pieces had been cut into certain weights suggested that instead of being the spoils of a Viking raid, this silver was used for trade.

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The third layer included a wooden box containing three artefacts of gold and four beautifully decorated silver ribbon arm-rings tied together. These are all on stunning display here, glowing with the warmth of high-quality gold: a large ring, an ingot and a breathtakingly beautiful pin in the shape of a flamingo-like bird, its markings outlined with a niello inlay of black paste of silver sulphide. The silver arm-rings are richly decorated with punch-tool marks, two of them with a serpent-like head biting their own tails, reminiscent of the ancient magical and alchemical symbol of the ouroboros – the snake eating its own tail.

One of these arm rings was inscribed with unusual runes that researchers struggled to decipher until earlier this year. Rather than Norse, the runes were inscribed in Anglo-Saxon. Translated, they read: “This is the community’s wealth/property”, suggesting the hoard belonged to a religious community, although the reasons for its burial are still to be discovered.

The fourth layer included a lidded silver gilt vessel wrapped in textiles and filled with beads, pendants, brooches, bracelets and other curios, some of which were so unusual — such as balls of dirt — that other examples were unknown not only in Europe, but internationally. The original vessel was too fragile to travel, but 3D composite renderings, CT scans, X-rays and one of the many explanatory videos in this exhibition allow a close examination of its external decorations and its contents.

Researchers continue to decode runes engraved on buried items. Photo: Sia Duff / Supplied

It was this vessel that provided the greatest surprise of all: its decorative inscriptions indicated the vessel to be of Sasanian origin, one of the last Persian imperial dynasties in what is present-day Iran. Microscopic analysis of the textiles revealed a mixture of fabrics, including a silk that would have been produced in Asia. These revelations up-ended what was previously known about the way people lived during the Viking Age (793 – 1066 CE) in Britain and Europe. Until this discovery it was thought that the furthest reach of Viking influence was to the west, but the Galloway Hoard showed that trade and travel in the Viking Age stretched just as far, along the Silk Road to the east. The balls of dirt contained inside the vessel were found to contain tiny flecks of gold; it is thought that these were made of the soil collected at sacred sites, perhaps as a memento or a relic. Along with these were beads, coins, pendants, just some of the unusual objects found in the hoard.

Many of the hoard’s original objects are on show here; an exquisite container of mysterious purpose made of rock crystal decorated with gold filigree, a black schist stone pendant contained in a frame of highly decorated gold thought to be touchstone to evaluate the quality of gold. There is plenty of fascinating explanatory material, as well as small displays of Lego depicting Viking Age life. While the brightly coloured plastic is somewhat jarring against the necessarily soft lighting in the rest of the exhibition, they are perfect for engaging younger visitors, perhaps budding archaeologists themselves.

Treasures of the Viking Age: The Galloway Hoard, South Australian Museum. Photo: Sia Duff / Supplied

The British archaeologist Sir Mortimer Wheeler wrote in his 1954 autobiography that ‘archaeology is a science that must be lived’, that ‘dead archaeology is the driest dust that blows.’ No doubt Wheeler would have been astounded and pleased at the latest technology that has allowed the most fragile artefacts in the Galloway Hoard to be brought to life — even objects too fragile to travel the 16,300 kilometres to Adelaide can now be examined in detail by the public. The painstaking conservation and dedicated work of researchers, the modern imaging technology and 3D reconstructions that have allowed for close analysis and research will no doubt continue to uncover the hoard’s greatest mysteries, continually rewriting Viking Age history as we know it.

Treasures of the Viking Age: The Galloway Hoard is showing at the South Australian Museum July 27