Mobility and the reuse of Roman Roads for the deposition of Viking Age silver hoards in North West England

Conference item

Discussions on Viking Age silver hoards in North West England have been dominated by analysis of the material compositions of the hoards. Despite a multi-century research legacy concerning the material composition of the Viking Age silver hoards, the relationship of the hoards to their transport and depositional locations has been understudied. The relationship of the hoards to early medieval overland transport links is studied in this paper with an optimal pathways modelling process in a Geographic Information System (GIS). The modelling process incorporates multiple cost of vertical movement functions to simulate human agency when moving through the landscape, error inherent in the Digital Elevation Model creation process, and preferential movement on re-used Romano-British roads. As a result of this analysis, it is suggested that the median travel time from early medieval period routeways to the hoard deposition points is 16 minutes. Over half of the hoards may have been placed under 25 minutes’ walk from the routeways. This finding supports an interpretation that the hoards are concealed deposits intended for retrieval, rather than ritual deposits that were not intended for retrieval.

Authors: Wilcox, W

• Publication status: Published
• Peer review status: Peer reviewed
• Publisher: Computer Applications and Quantitative Methods in Archaeology
• Host title: CAA2023 Conference Proceedings
• Publication date: 2024-05-06
• Acceptance date: 2024-05-06
• Event title: CAA2023: 50 Years of Synergy
• Event location: Amsterdam, Netherlands
• Event website: https://2023.caaconference.org/
• Event start date: 2023-04-03
• Event end date: 2023-04-06
• DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.11123149
• Language: English
• Keywords: Viking silver; SBTMR; early medieval archaeology; Viking age Britain; Roman roads; North West England; least cost path