Vale of York Hoard

A History of the World in 100 Objects

BBC

History

4.4 • 2.1K Ratings

🗓️ 21 June 2010

⏱️ 14 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

The history of the world as told through objects that history has left behind. This week Neil MacGregor, the director of the British Museum, has chosen objects that bring life to the traders, pilgrims and raiders who swept across the vast expanse of Europe and Asia between the 9th and 13th centuries. Today he is with a great Viking treasure hoard that was discovered by metal detectors in a field in North Yorkshire. This dramatic, recent discovery, consisting of over 600 coins buried in a silver cup, dates back to the 10th century and reveals the astonishing range of Viking activity. There are coins here minted as far away as Afghanistan and Iraq! Neil describes what the England of the early 900's was really like. He unravels the clichés that abound about the Vikings. The historian Michael Wood helps set the scene and the father and son team who found the hoard, David and Andrew Whelan, recall the excitement of the discovery. Producer: Anthony Denselow

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Thank you for downloading this episode of a history of the world in a hundred objects from BBC Radio 4.
0:13.0	On the surface, everything is idyllic.
0:20.0	Imagine a broad green field in Yorkshire in the distance
0:26.9	rolling hills, woods and a light morning mist. It's the epitome of a peaceful, unchanging England.
0:35.0	But scratch this surface, or more appropriately wave a metal detector over it and a very different
0:45.1	England emerges. A land of violence and panic not at all secure behind its
0:50.7	defending sea but terrifyingly vulnerable to invasion.
0:55.2	And it was in a field like this 1100 years ago that a frightened man buried a great collection
1:01.5	of silver, jewelry and coins that linked to this part of
1:04.6	England to what would then have seemed unimaginably distant parts of the world, to Russia, the
1:09.7	Middle East and Asia. The man was a Viking and this was his treasure.
1:15.0	Suddenly a metal detector
1:18.0	suddenly a metal detector in a field in Harrogate
1:22.0	uncovers this extraordinary detector in a field in Harrogate,
1:22.8	uncovers this extraordinary treasure.
1:26.0	I crouched down in the soil and you could see the edge of a few coins sticking out of the top of it.
1:35.0	There, packed in with these hundreds of coins and these arm rings and these pieces of silver.
1:43.0	Put it in a sandwich box, wrapped it all up and took it home.
1:48.0	You're right there with this material that it can take you back to that tremendous moment in English
1:54.8	history when the kingdom of England was first created. Things you dream of but
1:59.6	do I actually expect to happen. A history of the worldord, Viking objects buried around 927 found near Harrogate. This week we're sweeping across the vast expanse of Europe and Asia between the
2:38.8	ninth and the 13th centuries and once again we're not going to be focused on the Mediterranean.
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from BBC, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of BBC and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.