An overview of the Traprain Law hoard
On 12 May 1919, workmen excavating the great iron age hillfort at Traprain Law, near Haddington in East Lothian, made a remarkable discovery. In gently loosening the soil, one pulled up a strange silver vessel on the end of his pick. Further exploration revealed a pit full of crushed, broken and bent fragments of Roman silver. They had revealed the most remarkable hoard of Roman ‘hacksilver’ yet known.
Hacksilver has often been the poor relation of Roman silver studies. Glamorous hoards of intact vessels such as those from Mildenhall in Suffolk or Kaiseraugst in Switzerland hog the pages of books and the display cases of museums. The hacking – often viewed as barbaric destruction of fine classical art – somehow made this material less worthy of attention. Yet a long-running research project on the Traprain Treasure, which will appear in print this year for the centenary of its discovery, shows just how wrong this idea was.