The nature and longevity of the commodity exchange system in north-west England is difficult to measure. What is clear is that the onset of Scandinavian activity and settlement in the region (beginning, in earnest, in the early tenth century) brought about a tremendous increase in the supply of silver and, with it, a new medium of wealth and currency (Graham-Campbell 1998, pp. 107-16). From this date, a series of silver hoards testify to the operation of a Viking-style silver economy, of a type similar to that in the Scandinavian homelands. The most famous of these was discovered in 1840 on the banks of the River Ribble, close to Cuerdale Hall near Preston, Lancashire (Figure 10.1). The Cuerdale hoard, deposited in c. 905-10, is the largest and most varied silver hoard in the Western Viking World. Containing c. 7,500 coins and over 1,100 extant items of assorted bullion, it weighs an estimated c. 42.6 kg silver
FIGURE 10.1 A selection of artefacts from the Cuerdale hoard, Lancashire (© British Museum).
(Graham-Campbell 2011). To put this in context, the next largest silver hoard from the British Isles after Cuerdale, found at Skaill, Orkney, weighs just over 8kg.
Yet the impressive size of the Cuerdale hoard should not obscure the fact that north-west England is also home to fifteen other precious-metal hoards of broadly contemporary date, making this region the most silver-rich area of Viking England. The remaining hoards vary in size, date and character, and encompass both antiquarian finds and modern discoveries, typically made by metal-detector enthusiasts. While some contain only ornaments, and are thus difficult to date precisely, others can be dated on the basis of coins contained within them (the latest coins in the hoards determining the date after which the hoard was deposited). In north-west England, the series starts with the Cuerdale hoard, deposited in c. 905-10. It ends with a hoard from Halton Moor, Lancashire, deposited in c. 1025, although most hoards fall within the first three decades of the tenth century. This chronological clustering is an interesting trend, and may correlate with a period of pronounced political instability (see below p. 159).
The geographical distribution of the hoards also reveals some interesting trends (Figure 10.2). Many are located along important east-west communication routes connecting the two main centres of Scandinavian power in Ireland and England: Dublin and York (Williams 2009, p. 78). The Cuerdale hoard, for instance, is located close to a north/south crossing of the River Ribble: a position which leads, to the west, to the Ribble estuary and the Irish Sea, and, to the east, to a trans-Pennine Roman road network passing through the Aire Gap into the Vale of York (Graham-Campbell 2011, p. 155, Figure 9.3). Clusters of hoards mark other important crossing points, for instance, at Chester and, further north, at Penrith. A number of hoards, including two recent discoveries from Barrow-in-Furness and Silverdale, populate the lands surrounding Morecambe Bay, which leads, via the River Kent, to a further route to York.
The silver contained within the hoards comes from a mix of sources. Through their raids and trading activity, the Vikings acquired silver coin and other precious metal items from the Islamic Caliphates, the Carolingian Continent, Anglo-Saxon England, and the Danelaw (the area of Scandinavian settlement in northern and eastern England, broadly corresponding with East Anglia, Lincolnshire and Yorkshire). In most parts of Scandinavia, the Vikings did not use coins as coins, in the way that we would today (i. e., by trusting them at face value), but valued them simply for their bullion content. Only the weight and silver purity of the coin was important. Consequently, they preserved some of the silver in its original
FIGURE 10.2 Hoards and single finds in north-west England shown against Roman roads and major rivers, excluding an unlocalised hoard from ‘Lancashire’ (© author).
Form, but melted down other acquisitions into forms more suitable for the storage, transport and, in some cases, display, of silver, such as ingots and various types of ring. Trace element analysis can sometimes be used to reveal the source of the silver stored in such forms. Metallurgical examination of objects contained in hoards from southern Scandinavia has shown that they were principally made from Arabic silver coins, known as dirhams, but in north-west England, the picture is more varied (Hardh 1976, pp. 110-27; Arrhenius et al. 1972-3). Ingots from the Cuerdale (Lancs), Scotby (Cumbria) and Castle Esplanade, Chester, hoards do not correlate with any single source of silver. They derive instead from a mix of different sources, and were probably made from silver derived from multiple different coinages and bullion objects (Kruse and Tate 1992).
In hoards from the North West, silver thus takes one of two forms: coins, minted in various countries, and other silver objects, such as jewellery and ingots. Both can be studied to reveal the external cultural contacts of the Vikings, and the contexts of their wealth accumulation. Turning first to coins, what is most striking is the sheer range of different mints represented in the hoards. Although no coinage was minted in north-west England, the Vikings who settled in the Danelaw did produce their own coinage from the late ninth century, and these Viking Danelaw issues are well represented in the region’s hoards. Official coins from York, in the northern Danelaw, were produced on a large scale and are particularly
FIGURE 10.3 Islamic silver dirhams are easily recognisable by their large size and Arabic script. This example was found in 2011 in a hoard from Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria (© PAS).
Prominent in hoards from the North West, appearing in the Cuerdale (Lancs), Dean (Cumbria), Harkirk (formerly Lancashire, now Merseyside) and Chester, St John’s, hoards. Indeed, York coins are the largest coin group within the Cuerdale hoard. Many were freshly struck at the time of their deposit, suggesting that this coin component had been assembled in York shortly before making its way to Cuerdale (Williams 2011, pp. 43, 70-71).
Perhaps unsurprisingly, Anglo-Saxon coins also contribute a major element in the region’s hoards. Of the c. 7,500 coins contained in the Cuerdale hoard, around 900 are in the name of Alfred of Wessex (871-899), although some are copies from the Danelaw rather than official issues. Smaller numbers are recorded in the name of other Anglo-Saxon rulers, including Ceolwulf II of Mercia (874- c. 879) and Edward the Elder (899-924) (Williams 2011, p. 42). Arabic dirhams, large silver coins minted in the Islamic Caliphates, are also contained in the region’s hoards (Figure 10.3). The Vikings obtained these coins in exchange for furs, slaves, timber and amber in Russia: huge quantities were imported into Scandinavia, and from there, a smaller number reached Britain and Ireland. Around fifty dirhams are known from the Cuerdale hoard, from mints as diverse as Baghdad in the Abbasid Caliphate, Al-Banjhir in the Hindu Kush, and Al-Andalus in Arabic Spain (Lowick 1976). Dirhams also appear in hoards from Warton (Lancs), Dean and Flusco Pike (Cumbria). Carolingian coins, most likely acquired through Viking raiding and trading in France, are also present in smaller quantities, in hoards from Cuerdale, Harkirk and Dean (Williams 2009, p. 74, Figure 8.1).
Coins thus make up a significant component of silver contained in hoards from the North West. The other main category of hoarded silver is assorted bullion objects, or what is sometimes referred to as nonnumismatic silver. These objects include items such as ingots, rings and brooches. Like the coins, they reflect the contacts of the Vikings, most notably with Scandinavia and Ireland. Simple cast bar ingots with oval or D-shaped sections are found in a number of local hoards, including those from Cuerdale and Silverdale (Lancs), Flusco Pike (2) (Cumbria) and Huxley and Eccleston (Cheshire) (see Figures 10.1 and 10.5). They were made by casting molten silver into damp sand or open stone or clay moulds, two examples of which have been found in Chester, at Lower Bridge Street and Cuppin Street (Mason 2007, Figure 30; Bean 2000, p. 17). Cast bar ingots occur throughout Scandinavian-settled regions and are not culturally diagnostic. Nonetheless, it is often assumed that those contained in the Cuerdale hoard originated in Ireland, since this is the likely source of much of the hoard’s other bullion content (Kruse 1992, 81; but see Williams 2011, pp. 70-71).
Other types of silver object have identifiable origins. Dublin is thought to have been the main centre of production for a distinctive type of penannular arm-ring (the so-called ‘Hiberno-Scandinavian broadband’ arm-ring, Hiberno-Scandinavian referring to Scandinavians established in Ireland) (Sheehan 2011). Examples of these arm-rings occur in hoards from Cuerdale and Silverdale (Lancs) and Huxley (Cheshire) (Figure 10.4). Silver penannular (open ring) brooches with long pins, of the type found in the Cuerdale and Flusco Pike (1) hoards, were also produced by Irish-Scandinavian communities, and reflect pre-Viking Irish metalworking traditions. Such objects reached north-west England by way of the Irish Sea. Other types of silver ornament, including arm - and neck-rings made from twisted or plaited rods, are more likely to have been produced within Scandinavia. A silver twisted-rod neck-ring deposited in a hoard from Halton Moor (Lancs) has western Norwegian parallels (Graham-Campbell 2011, p. 89). Spiral rings, so called because of their spiral-striated appearance, were imported from Russia and southern Scandinavia, and are distinctive elements in the Cuerdale and Silverdale hoards. The routes by which such items travelled from Scandinavia to north-west England probably varied: they could have
FIGURE 10.4 Folded Hiberno-Scandinavian arm-rings and ingot from the Huxley hoard, Cheshire (© Liverpool Museum).
Entered via the Irish Sea, or have travelled westwards through the Danelaw, possibly via Lincoln or York. Combined, then, the coins and bullion objects portray the great diversity of contacts and breadth of silver sources of the Scandinavians in the North West, whilst emphasizing particularly strong connections to the Ireland (in terms of bullion objects) and the northern Danelaw (in terms of coins).
World History
