The exceptional silver lidded vessel in the Viking hoard discovered in Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland, that was initially thought to be of Carolingian origin was instead created in Persia during the Sasanian Empire (224 to 651 A.D.). A careful cleaning and metallurgic analysis revealed that the pot travelled thousands of miles to end up crammed with Viking loot and buried in southern Scotland.. Found by retired businessman and metal detectorist Derek McLennan in September of 2014, the Galloway Hoard is the largest Viking treasure found in Scotland since 1891. It contains more than 100 individual pieces — silver ingots with runic inscriptions, silver arm rings, brooches, a solid silver pectoral cross with enamel decoration, an exquisite gold bird pin — buried in two layers. The loose pieces were on top and the lidded vessel underneath containing even more treasures, each individually wrapped in luxurious silk samite cloth. Its shape and style were comparable to lidded vessels made in the Carolingian Empire (800–887 A.D.) of central and western Europe. The hoard was buried in the 10th century when the population of Galloway was predominantly Viking settlers. By then, the lidded pot was already an antique. It was so important a piece (the largest pot of its type ever found) and its contents so valuable that archaeologists thought it may have been pillaged in a Viking raid of a monastery or church in Germany or France. The decoration on the surface was hard to see through a thick layer of verdigris (the green powdery coating produced by the corrosion of copper) and the remains of the textile it was wrapped in. After a 3D scan provided a roadmap of the surface, precision laser cleaning allowed conservators to remove the verdigris that obscured the surface without touching the precious surviving textile wrap that clings to the vessel. Cleaning revealed Zoroastrian iconography, including leopards and tigers and the centerpiece: a crowned fire altar. Zoroastrian was the state religion of the Sasasian Empire, and Sasasian kings were frequently depicted hunting exotic big cats. The crown over the fire altar is also a reference to the Persian emperor. Dr Jane Kershaw, an expert on Viking age silver from the University of Oxford, said: “Taking tiny samples from both the vessel body and the niello – the black silver-sulphide inlays that outline the decoration – we assessed the provenance of the silver. It was immediately clear that the vessel was unlike any other silver contained in the hoard: instead, the results point to origins in the Sasanian Empire, what is today Iran. Elemental analysis using portable X-ray Fluorescence revealed that the vessel is an alloy of silver and relatively pure copper, which is typical of Sasanian silver, but not contemporary European silver. In addition, the isotopes of the lead contained within the silver metal and niello match ore from Iran. We can even go so far as to say that the niello derives from the famous mine of Nakhlak in central Iran. It’s fantastic to have scientific confirmation for the distant origins of this remarkable object.” The vessel will go on display for the first time in the British Museum’s Silk Road exhibition which runs from September 26 until February 23, 2025. Meanwhile, National Museums Scotland is hosting a live online event on September 11 in which conservators, archaeologists and other experts who have studied the hoard will discuss the what they’ve learned about the Galloway Hoard in the decade since its discovery, including the latest findings. Tickets are free (there’s a suggested donation but it’s optional) and you can sign up here.