A hoard or "wealth deposit" is an archaeological term for a collection of valuable objects or artifacts , sometimes purposely buried in the ground, in which case it is sometimes also known as a cache . This would usually be with the intention of later recovery by the hoarder; hoarders sometimes died or were unable to return for other reasons (forgetfulness or physical displacement from its location) before retrieving the hoard, and these surviving hoards might then be uncovered much later by metal detector hobbyists, members of the public, and archaeologists .
19-464: 56°10′16″N 4°02′52″W / 56.17105°N 4.047779°W / 56.17105; -4.047779 The Stirling torcs make up a hoard of four gold Iron Age torcs , a type of necklace, all of which date to between 300 and 100 BC and which were buried deliberately at some point in antiquity. They were found by a metal detectorist in a field near Blair Drummond , Perthshire , Scotland on 28 September 2009. The hoard has been described as
38-445: A finished state. These were probably buried with the intention to be recovered at a later time. A merchant's hoard is a collection of various functional items which, it is conjectured, were buried by a traveling merchant for safety, with the intention of later retrieval. A personal hoard is a collection of personal objects buried for safety in times of unrest. A hoard of loot is a buried collection of spoils from raiding and
57-474: A flat strip of gold which has then been twisted, and represent a local style of jewellery, originating equally from Scotland and Ireland, and going back to the Late Bronze Age . One has plain hooked terminals while the other has more decorative disc terminals. The third torc is broken, with only half of the original artefact surviving in two fragments. It is a tubular annular torc, which would have had
76-513: A hinge and catch. It is of ornate design compared to the ribbon torcs, and experts have identified it as a type originating from the Toulouse area in southern France. It is the first of its kind to have been found in Britain. The fourth torc is a looped terminal torc, complete and in good condition. It is made from eight gold wires twisted together. It has intricately decorated terminals and has
95-718: A short length of safety chain. It has been described by Dr Fraser Hunter, Iron Age and Roman curator at the National Museum of Scotland , as a remarkable hybrid of Mediterranean craftsmanship and more traditional Iron Age motifs. This might have been made for a local chieftain by a craftsman who had learned his craft in the Mediterranean region, and with the third torc suggests significant links between Scotland and Southern Europe. There are no directly comparable other artefacts. The last significant find of torcs in Scotland
114-490: A wooden roundhouse but found no more artefacts. All four torcs were buried together, some 15–20 centimetres (6–8 in) below the surface. Subsequent archaeological investigations determined that the torcs had originally been buried within a roundhouse , a prehistoric circular building. This building may have had religious significance, as hoard finds tend to be either votive offerings to the gods, or items of great value that had been hidden in time of unrest or war, and because
133-500: Is more in keeping with the popular idea of " buried treasure ". Votive hoards are different from the above in that they are often taken to represent permanent abandonment, in the form of purposeful deposition of items, either all at once or over time for ritual purposes, without intent to recover them . Furthermore, votive hoards need not be "manufactured" goods, but can include organic amulets and animal remains. Votive hoards are often distinguished from more functional deposits by
152-628: The Art Fund and the National Heritage Memorial Fund , and the hoard was acquired. Hoard Hoards provide a useful method of providing dates for artifacts through association as they can usually be assumed to be contemporary (or at least assembled during a decade or two), and therefore used in creating chronologies. Hoards can also be considered an indicator of the relative degree of unrest in ancient societies. Thus conditions in 5th and 6th century Britain spurred
171-577: The National Museum of Scotland. According to Scottish Treasure Trove laws, the crown can claim any archaeological objects found in Scotland. Finders have no ownership rights and must report any objects to Scotland's Treasure Trove Unit. Booth is entitled to a reward equal to the value of the torcs. Dr David Caldwell of the Scottish Treasure Trove Unit said that the torcs would "definitely" stay in Scotland. In October 2010
190-537: The Scottish Treasure Trove website and sent a photograph to the Scottish Treasure Trove Unit at the National Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh. Dr Fraser Hunter said he "almost fell off [his] seat" when he first saw photographs of the discovery the next morning, and members of staff had arrived at the site within three hours. The subsequent archaeological excavation at the site exposed the remains of
209-405: The building did not seem to have features like a hearth associated with a dwelling. All four torcs date to between 300 and 100 BC, they are highly and unexpectedly varied in form and style which greatly adds to the significance of the find. Two twisted ribbon torcs (numbered 1–2 in the photo of the display), in perfect condition, are elegant and relatively simple in design. They are fashioned from
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#1732779953879228-1021: The burial of hoards, of which the most famous are the Hoxne Hoard , Suffolk; the Mildenhall Treasure , the Fishpool Hoard , Nottinghamshire, the Water Newton hoard, Cambridgeshire, and the Cuerdale Hoard , Lancashire, all preserved in the British Museum . Prudence Harper of the Metropolitan Museum of Art voiced some practical reservations about hoards at the time of the Soviet exhibition of Scythian gold in New York City in 1975. Writing of
247-406: The landowner's permission to search on his land. I parked up and got the metal detector out. There was an area of flat ground behind the car, and I thought, I’ll just scan this first, before I head out into the field. Literally about seven steps behind where I had parked, I found them. Booth took the torcs home and washed them in water. After researching them on the internet, he completed a form on
266-593: The most significant discovery of Iron Age metalwork in Scotland and is said to be of international significance. The torcs were valued at £462,000, and after a public appeal were acquired for the National Museums of Scotland in March 2011. The finder was a novice metal detectorist, David Booth, who found the torcs on his first treasure-hunting outing, using a basic model metal detector. Having identified an area he considered to be of good potential, Booth obtained
285-422: The nature of the goods themselves (from animal bones to diminutive artifacts), the places buried (being often associated with watery places, burial mounds and boundaries), and the treatment of the deposit (careful or haphazard placement and whether ritually destroyed/broken). Valuables dedicated to the use of a deity (and thus classifiable as "votive") were not always permanently abandoned. Valuable objects given to
304-523: The original group. Such "dealer's hoards" can be highly misleading, but better understanding of archaeology amongst collectors, museums and the general public is gradually making them less common and more easily identified. Hoards may be of precious metals , coinage , tools or less commonly, pottery or glass vessels. There are various classifications depending on the nature of the hoard: A founder's hoard contains broken or unfit metal objects, ingots , casting waste, and often complete objects, in
323-637: The so-called "Maikop treasure" (acquired from three separate sources by three museums early in the twentieth century, the Berliner Museen , the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology , and the Metropolitan Museum, New York), Harper warned: By the time "hoards" or "treasures" reach museums from the antiquities market, it often happens that miscellaneous objects varying in date and style have become attached to
342-519: The torcs were valued at £462,000 by the Scottish Archaeological Finds Allocation Panel, and the crown stated it would allocate the torcs to National Museums Scotland if the museum made an ex-gratia payment of £462,000 to the finder, David Booth; National Museums Scotland had until April 2011 to raise the required sum of money. By March 2011 the amount was raised by a public appeal and significant grants by
361-482: Was in 1857, when gold ribbon torcs were found on Law Farm, Moray . The eclecticism of the styles and origins is comparable to that of the objects in the Broighter Hoard from Northern Ireland , probably of a slightly later period. Following the completion of the archaeological excavations, the torcs were made public on 4 November 2009 when they were shown to the press in Edinburgh by Booth and museum staff at
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