One of the most significant hoards ever found in Scotland has been saved for the nation, having been acquired by National Museums Scotland. The Bronze Age Peebles Hoard was discovered in the Scottish Borders by a metal detectorist in 2020. It has since been painstakingly excavated, analysed and catalogued, revealing dozens of rare objects for the first time. Efforts are now underway to secure funding for the continued research and conservation of the hoard and to uncover the secrets of this one-of-a-kind discovery.
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00:00My name is Matthew Knight, I'm Senior Curator of the Chalcolithic and Bronze Age Collections here at the National Museum of Scotland.
00:08The Peebles Hoard is a collection of late Bronze Age artefacts dating to around 3000 years ago.
00:16We've got bronze objects as well as organic objects all gathered together and placed in a pit in Peebleshire.
00:22So the Peebles Hoard came up in July 2020 by metal detecting and it was reported to the Treasure Trove Unit
00:30who contacted archaeologists and conservators at National Museums Scotland to come out and assist with the excavation.
00:38The hoard was block lifted and it was brought to the National Museums Collection Centre
00:44where we undertook a laboratory excavation which is a really careful, fine detailed excavation of the material
00:52that couldn't be done in the field. The material is so fragile and so diverse in its character
00:59that it needed very environmentally controlled conditions.
01:03The material that survives in the Peebles Hoard is remarkable.
01:08It's not just the preservation of 3000 year old bronze objects, it's also the survival of glimpses of leather,
01:16straps, chunks of woods as well as woven textiles.
01:21This is material that was made over 3000 years ago and has survived intact in the ground throughout all of that time.
01:30It's the glimpses of material culture that we so rarely see from prehistory
01:36but we know must have been such an integral part of their lives.
01:39One of the most intriguing things about the Peebles Hoard is how much there is to understand about it.
01:46It's a really complex set of objects that appear to be interlinked in some way.
01:52So this process of excavating the hoard and laying out all the different components
01:58is just the very start of a much longer research and conservation project
02:03that will ultimately shape not only how we understand these objects from this moment in time
02:08but also how they fit in with a much broader picture of ancient Scotland and its position within Europe.
02:14So this quite spectacular object here is what's known as a rattle pendant
02:19and this is a series of interlinked rings with bronze pendants hanging off it
02:25and the idea is that this would have hung as an ornament perhaps off a horse or another sort of garment
02:31and as it was moved it would have rattled and made a noise.
02:35But these are incredibly rare objects.
02:37There are two from the Peebles Hoard and these are the first examples known from Scotland
02:42and they have parallels in other parts of mainland continental Europe.