When The Viking-Age Gold and Silver of Scotland (AD 850–1100) was published in 1995, the catalogue detailed the contents of thirty-four hoards containing coins and/or ornaments and bullion (in the form of ingots and hack-silver) which could be linked to Viking activity and Norse settlement in Scotland during the 9th to 11th centuries, together with all of the known single finds. A subsequent paper (Graham-Campbell 2008) brought to attention more recent discoveries and some further (lost) antiquarian material (summarised below). In this update, it was pointed out (ibid.: 194) that the total of thirty-four hoards was in no way definitive, given the likelihood of some duplication, with [7] being recommended for deletion, as subsequently [16] and now also [21], but with the addition of a (lost) coin hoard reportedly discovered in St Kilda in the 18th century [2a], and since then a small gold hoard from Jura, found in 1869 [25a], and the Galloway (2014) Hoard [35]. Finally, renewed consideration is given to the inclusion of two further hoards, both from south-west Scotland [6a] and [30a], originally rejected as probably ‘non-Viking’. Their addition to the overall total means that the revised corpus currently consists of thirtysix hoards. For a recent survey of the use of silver in Scotland 75–1000 ad, see Blackwell, Goldberg and Hunter, Scotland’s Early Silver (2017), and for Scandinavian Scotland, see Horne (2021).

Hoards: Addenda and corrigenda

[1] Port Glasgow (near), Renfrewshire (1699)

Hugh Pagan (2014) has recovered important information pertaining to this mixed hoard, augmenting our knowledge of both its provenance and contents, from letters written by (or addressed to) the Rev. Robert Wodrow (1679–1734), who at the time of its discovery was the newly appointed Librarian of the University of Glasgow. Pagan confirms that ‘a date of deposit of c. 970’ is ‘appropriate’ (ibid.: 419) and concludes that: … it can now be seen that the hoard was found ‘within a mile of Port Glasgow’ and on a ‘brae’ [‘by the falling doun of some earth’], i.e.

Already by the time our volume Vikings in Scotland: An Archaeological Survey came to fruition in 1998, it was becoming clear that even two authors could not fully encompass the range of developing evidence. Scientific endeavours, new methodologies and the explosion of environmental data, with burgeoning analysis, were beginning to dominate research agendas beyond our specialisms. During the succeeding decades, these aspects have developed into commonly applied approaches, complementing the study of antiquarian sources, place-names and historical documentation. Taken together, all these aspects provide a unique suite of interdisciplinary tools. The contents of this current – and most timely – volume highlight both the richness of the evidence and the results of a collegiate approach within our discipline as a whole.

Several different approaches are already enabling a much fuller – and potentially more accurate – understanding of the Scandinavians in Scotland. In combination with more commonly applied methods, new approaches and new scientific methodologies are already integrated, and all are providing a much wider platform for discussion. Commencing with a reassessment of accepted narratives, a number of issues can be addressed. Making use of new refinements in C14 determinations, artefactual studies (for example, Ashby on combs, this volume) and isotopic/ aDNA studies, it is becoming more likely that we will be able to establish more clearly the dating of the arrival of the Vikings on our shores, as well as the nature of that arrival and interaction between native and incoming populations. The thorny issue of whether this was peaceful or violent is less commonly dictating the agenda now, being replaced with a more nuanced understanding of regional variations and continuing regimes of landscape exploitation (see, for example, Dockrill and Bond, and Macniven, this volume). The nature of this potential population replacement is informed through isotopic examination where the origin of individuals can be interrogated. The consideration of ethnic identities and their expression in newly settled areas has fascinating potential.

Major datasets ripe for reinterpretation and amplification include little- understood early settlement excavations, markedly Jarlshof in Shetland. As an oft-cited archaeological sequence of developing farmsteads, the issues with the stratigraphy and associated (or otherwise) artefact groups have cast a long shadow over the interpretation of many artefact assemblages from broadly contemporary sites. Items are uncritically considered to be securely dated in the Jarlshof sequence and are cited as datable parallels, when in fact the stratigraphical sequence is problematic.

The ‘Pagan Norse Graves of Scotland’ Research Project (PNGS) was initiated in 1995 with the award of a research grant to James Graham- Campbell (UCL) by the Leverhulme Trust. This, together with funding from the National Museums of Scotland (NMS), enabled the creation of a temporary post at NMS to catalogue and research Viking-Age gravefinds, to which Caroline Paterson (then Richardson) was duly appointed. In 1997, NMS with Historic Scotland funded a short extension for her to accession the finds from the Norwegian excavations of the Viking cemetery at Westness, Rousay, Orkney (Kaland 1993; Sellevold 1999, 2010), then newly returned from Bergen, in part intended for display in the new Museum of Scotland.

After a fallow period, PNGS was revived in 2017 thanks again to the Leverhulme Trust, with the award to Graham-Campbell of an Emeritus Fellowship, but in the meantime there were several lesser, but no less welcome, grants in support of PNGS (to be acknowledged in the final publication). The present outline, by Graham-Campbell and Paterson, includes a review of relevant recent literature on the subject by Stephen Harrison (University of Glasgow).

The point of departure for PNGS has been the catalogue of ‘Viking antiquities in Scotland’, published in 1940 by the Norwegian archaeologist Sigurd Grieg, based on a study-tour undertaken during a couple of months in 1925 (1940: 9–10). It formed the basis for general studies of the material by both Brøgger (1929, 1930) and Shetelig (1945, 1954) and is an indispensable work, but ‘the book teems with blunders’ (Thorsteinsson 1968: 164). For anyone wishing to map the distribution of pagan Norse graves in Scotland (for example, Crawford 1987, fig. 31), it is all that there has been to go on, with the result that Grieg’s inaccuracies and errors (including duplications) have inevitably been reproduced in terms of both overall numbers and individual examples of doubtful date/provenance. In the case of numbers, for example, PNGS has been able to increase Shetland’s three accepted graves to maybe thirteen (Graham-Campbell 2016, with additions), and for Orkney, including the two burial places at Pierowall, Westray and Westness, Rousay (see below), the total has reached a possible ninety-seven.

The combination of double-sided laser heating in the diamond anvil cell and detailed chemical analysis of the recovered samples is a promising approach to explore the chemistry of the Earth’s deep interior from the lower mantle to the core. Routine recovery of laser-heated samples coupled with chemical and textural characterization at the submicron scale is the key to expand knowledge of chemical interactions and melting at extreme conditions, particularly in complex systems. Recent technical developments have allowed us to investigate element partitioning and melting relations at pressures approaching the Earth’s inner-core boundary. In this chapter, we review the techniques used for recovering tiny laser-heated samples and analyzing their chemical compositions and quenched textures, while highlighting key experiments that address silicate–metal element partitioning during mantle–core differentiation, silicate melting relations with applications to early magma ocean crystallization and deep mantle melting, and melting relations in iron-alloy systems relevant to the core. The results have drastically expanded our understanding of element redistribution at deep chemical boundaries and the chemical evolution of the deep mantle and the inner core. Finally, we emphasize the need for standardized protocols to obtain consistent, reproducible results and streamlined procedures to promote good practice and increase productivity. A broad collaboration with a systematic approach would further advance the field of high-pressure geochemistry.

The combination of double-sided laser heating in the diamond anvil cell and detailed chemical analysis of the recovered samples is a promising approach to explore the chemistry of the Earth’s deep interior from the lower mantle to the core. Routine recovery of laser-heated samples coupled with chemical and textural characterization at the submicron scale is the key to expand knowledge of chemical interactions and melting at extreme conditions, particularly in complex systems. Recent technical developments have allowed us to investigate element partitioning and melting relations at pressures approaching the Earth’s inner-core boundary. In this chapter, we review the techniques used for recovering tiny laser-heated samples and analyzing their chemical compositions and quenched textures, while highlighting key experiments that address silicate–metal element partitioning during mantle–core differentiation, silicate melting relations with applications to early magma ocean crystallization and deep mantle melting, and melting relations in iron-alloy systems relevant to the core. The results have drastically expanded our understanding of element redistribution at deep chemical boundaries and the chemical evolution of the deep mantle and the inner core. Finally, we emphasize the need for standardized protocols to obtain consistent, reproducible results and streamlined procedures to promote good practice and increase productivity. A broad collaboration with a systematic approach would further advance the field of high-pressure geochemistry.