A team of archaeologists resolves the mystery of the Vikingo Galloway treasure found in Scotland and reveals its surprising origin

“With Galloway’s treasure, we have the weird: real names and messages left by their owners,” wrote Adrián Maldonado, a Galloway treasure researcher in the national museums of Scotland, in a museum statement.

The treasure included at least four arm rings with runic inscriptions, and a more appropriate message from a piece near the pit. In the beginning, taking into account the Viking nature of the finding, it was thought that inscriptions could be names in ancient Nordic written in Scandinavian runes. But in reality, according to the statement, the silver pieces presented Anglo -Saxon Runic inscriptions that denoted words and names of ancient English.

Galloway’s treasure – the richest collection of the Viking era ever located in Britain or Ireland – includes deposits divided into several groups. The lower level of the treasure, which was buried first, contains the most valuable material, and a smaller deposit located in the upper part was used as a decoy. Objects with Runic inscriptions come from La Plata from the lower section, which included 15 silver bullion and 31 arm rings involved in a leather bag.

The arm ring with lighter inscription (of 0.8 ounces) contained an ancient word that experts believe that it translates as “wealth”, and can also contain the name of “Edgar”. In another of the rings you are probably read “Tila” (a personal name), and in another bigger one is a name similar to Bercol, Berwulf or Berric. The small Runic inscription of the fragment of an arm ring found near the treasure pit has been translated into the modern name “Egbert”.

“This is a difficult and unusual inscription, and the proposed translation is a challenge,” David Parsons, runologist at the University of Wales, said in a statement. “There are a number of things that are technically ‘incorrect’ when we compare it with what we know about the ‘correct’ runic writing. However, if we think of spoken and written English today, there are a wide variety of regional and idiomatic variations and, if we take it into account, it is possible to accept it as a plausible reading. And in the context of what we can deduce on Galloway’s treasure, it is really convincing. ”

The largest arm ring, which weighed 4.6 ounces, had the longest and longest registration. However, there was a great advance when experts observed with a microscope the points known as “puncts”, which were used in medieval manuscripts to indicate abbreviations. It is now understood that the final translation of this largest ring says “this is the property of the community.”

“This is another really interesting and significant advance in our understanding of the Galloway Hoard,” said Martin Goldberg, of the museum, in a statement. “The idea that the wealth that this treasure represents was owned by the community is fascinating.”

Maldonado and Parsons believe that the “community” character of the property could have referred to the entire treasure or only to the silver of the leather bag. They also believe that the community referred to here was probably monastic, given the presence of clear ecclesiastical objects in the treasure. “One thing is clear,” they wrote. “This does not seem the belongings of a single person.”

Despite this advance in translation, there are still many mysteries. If it really was a communal burial, how many people knew him, why they buried him and why no one missed him? With a little luck, one day we will know those answers, but for now they have them Egbert, Tila and Berwulf.

Tim Newcomb is a journalist who lives in the northwest of the Pacific. It covers stadiums, shoes, equipment, infrastructure and more for a variety of publications, including popular mechanics. His favorite interviews include meetings with Roger Federer in Switzerland, Kobe Bryant in Los Angeles and Tinker Hatfield in Portland.