John Naylor and Eleanor Standley, with other contributors, The Watlington Hoard: Coinage, Kings and the Viking Great Army in Oxfordshire, AD 875–880

Summary

In 2015 James Mather fulfilled every metal-detectorist’s dream when he discovered an early medieval hoard not far from the small Oxfordshire town of Watlington – the exact location is not provided so as to deter other detectorists. When fully excavated and analysed the hoard was found to comprise 203 silver coins, mostly from the kingdoms of Mercia and Wessex in the 870s, 15 silver ingots, 6 arm- and neck-rings (whole or in part), a fragmentary hooked tag and a small piece of cut gold. A conference to discuss the results was held at the Ashmolean Museum in 2018, and this book of essays stems from that event. Details are provided about the discovery and treatment of the finds, together with discussion and a catalogue of the coins (by Julian Baker and John Naylor) and of the non-numismatic finds (by Jane Kershaw and Eleanor Naylor). Readers of this journal may be particularly interested in the papers by John Naylor and Ryan Lavelle about the broader context for the finds in the archaeology and history of the upper Thames valley in the late ninth century when a complex jockeying for power brought together Mercian, West Saxon and Viking leaders in ways that can only be partly understood, but would seem to be directly responsible for the hoard’s interment.

By a strange coincidence a hoard very similar to the Watlington one was discovered near Leominster (Herefordshire) in 2015, but only some of that hoard is available for study because the finders disposed of part of it before it came to the notice of the relevant authorities (for which those unprincipled metal-detectorists have served prison sentences). Both hoards consist predominantly of joint issues of coins made by the Mercian king Ceolwulf II (874–9) and the West Saxon ruler Alfred (871–99) when they were in alliance against the Viking Great Army under the leadership of Guthrum. One of the issues known as the ‘Two Emperors’, after a Roman design on which it was based, seems a particularly apt testimony to the alliance between two royal houses which had so often been rivals, particularly over control of the upper Thames. In 878 King Alfred defeated Guthrum at the battle of Edington (Wiltshire) and a new accord was reached between them, perhaps involving a handing over of some of the very coins that were buried at Watlington.