From Frankish Altars to English Fields

In 2007 amateur treasure hunters in Northern England uncovered an astonishingly trove. The 10th century Vale of York Hoard contains hundreds of coins and other precious items from across the medieval world, held in a silver gilded vessel originally used as a communion cup by the Carolingian Franks. So, how did a ninth century French vessel end up filled with silver and buried in a field in England a century later? The answer seems simple: Vikings! We’re all familiar with the popular image of the Vikings, raiders arriving without warning in their longboats to burn, K*ll, steal. But the origins of our treasure hoard may not be so straightforward! In this talk, Dr. Daniel Melleno will use the hoard as a starting place to discuss the variety of ways that the Northmen and their neighbors engaged and examine what a single silver cup can tell us about war, trade, and diplomacy in the Viking Age.

Dr. Daniel Melleno is an associate professor of pre-modern history at the University of Denver, with a particular interest in early medieval cross-cultural encounter. His recently published book, Franks and Northmen: From Strangers to Neighbors (2024) focuses on the nature and impact of Franco-Scandinavian interaction, using text, coins, and material culture to examine the complex and multi-faceted effects of trade, violence, and diplomacy in the Viking Age.

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Host or Publisher The Denver Society of the Archaeological Institute of America