The Scotsman bulletin Thursday October 24 2024 #PeeblesHoard #Detectorist

The Scotsman

Today Dale discusses the Peebles Hoard with Alison Campsie, a 3000 year old collection unearthed by a detectorist in the Scottish Borders

Transcript

00:00Hello and welcome to the Scotsman's Daily Video Bulletin for this Thursday. My name's Dale Miller,

00:05I'm Deputy Editor of the Scotsman and I'm joined by our Heritage Correspondent Alison Campsey.

00:11Good morning, Alison. It is October but it is bright today and quite nice actually.

00:17Yeah, bright and breezy in Aberdeenshire for sure. I've got my own, my chimney though,

00:23make sure that it kind of holds on this winter.

00:26I hope it doesn't look like my back fence from Storm Ashley.

00:30Yeah, I mean if I was to show you a picture of my garden, it's got various bits of debris

00:36strewn across it so we might not go there. But yeah, definitely there's a sense of getting the

00:41house ready for winter for sure. Well look, we're not at winter yet

00:46thankfully but we are talking about the front page of the Scotsman today

00:49firstly and we led on an exclusive from our Education Correspondent Callum Ross.

00:57The charity Young Enterprise Scotland is on the brink of closure. They've had their funding pulled

01:03by the government. Callum reports they've applied five times under a new system, been knocked back

01:08every time. They've exclusively told us, the Chief Executive, that they're set to shut.

01:1531 staff that make up the charity have been given a 30-day notice period. Now this is a

01:23charity that helped 18,000 pupils at schools and colleges last year. It does a lot of good and it

01:31does perhaps paint a bit of a picture about the budget pressures that are coming into effect over

01:36coming months. I get the feeling, Alison, we may not have seen the last of some of these closure

01:42announcements. I wanted to talk about something that you're reporting on today. You can read the

01:47story at scotsman.com but it's the Bronze Age Peebles Hoard that has been secured for the

01:53nation. Can you tell us about it? Yeah, well Alison, always my absolute pleasure. I'm going

01:59to take you 3,000 years back to the Peebles Hoard. Now the Peebles Hoard was found in 2020

02:08by a chap called Marius Stephen, a metal detectorist and a builder who lives in the

02:16Borders. He was out with his pals in summer 2020, June I believe, and struck upon this hoard of

02:25Bronze Age treasures. Now we do know now that National Museums Scotland has acquired it for

02:32the nation, given its significance, and it really is an extraordinary and utterly unique hoard.

02:39That's how NMS have described it and who am I to disagree, quite frankly. There's about 500 pieces

02:46of treasure in the hoard and I think the star item, if you like, is this

02:54pendant rattle. This is something that would have been attached to a horse or a cart to make a

03:00sound as it moved. So straight away you're getting this kind of like evocative feeling of

03:07what these pieces might have been used for and how they would have fitted into everyday life.

03:13Now this idea that the hoard is unique and extraordinary I think is pretty much based on

03:19the fact that following deep analysis by NMS, we know that some of these items are the first of

03:26their kind to be found in Scotland and the pendant rattle, for example, which I just spoke about, the

03:32bit that was stuck on the horse or the cart to make this great shimmering sound, it would normally be

03:37found in that period in places like North Poland and Germany. So this has kind of tilted our

03:48understanding of Bronze Age Scotland in a sense because it shows the people who were living 3,000

03:53years ago were really part of this kind of network, this international network, if you like,

04:01of communities across the North Sea. So they're not just stuck down in the borders in their little

04:06bubble, they're out there, they're receiving guests, they might be travelling and coming together are

04:12these extraordinary sort of set of objects which kind of illustrate a kind of mobile, sophisticated,

04:18connected group of people. So NMS have launched a fundraising campaign to further research this

04:25because they do believe that what was found in that field near Peebles by Marion Stephen really

04:30has the ability to open up the narrative of Bronze Age Scotland and to change our

04:36understanding of it. So really I got to agree, an incredible find, I mean you know I'm into this

04:44stuff, I get very excited by it but it was just so amazing to hear the detail that has

04:50managed to be established surrounding the hoard, what it was used for and presumably what it meant

04:56to the people who held it. And the fact that you know these items are coming from overseas

05:03would suggest a degree of status amongst the group of people who actually owned these pieces 3,000

05:10years ago. I love the picture that you paint Alison, I've got an image of the rattle sort of

05:15going. I could just hear that rattle, you know it's just amazing, I would actually love to go to NMS

05:20and get someone to rattle it for me. I'll put it on my Christmas list but really I mean you know

05:27these items are not just you know sort of items which are just kind of you know stuffed

05:35in the ground forgotten about, they really really tell stories and they really tell us stories about

05:41people who lived in these civilisations and I just think that's what makes them so exciting,

05:46you know the kind of the modern world, I mean we're so kind of bombarded with kind of information

05:53and sort of demands on our senses and money you know and here we are looking at something that

05:57was made, beautifully made 3,000 years ago, you know a thousand years before Jesus Christ if

06:04that's your thing, you know and beautifully made and it obviously had some great importance to

06:09someone and I just think you know these artefacts just really sets these periods on fire and sets

06:15your imagination on fire and just really connects you into the past in a way that's quite rare.

06:21Now listen we know that there are plenty of people that pick up their metal detector

06:25when they go out of a weekend or otherwise and try and see what they can find. Now

06:31the person that actually found and discovered this whole hoard when they gave it in, it's

06:37been confirmed there was a well a sizable reward of sorts. Yeah that's right, so the builder,

06:44a metal detectorist, Mario Stephen, has been praised for his diligence as a metal detectorist.

06:49Now there have been kind of growing concerns about the growth in metal detecting and the kind of

06:56a possibility that people aren't really aware of the strict rules that surround activity

07:04in Scotland. Now Mario Stephen did know the rules and he's really helped to save this for the nation

07:10really I think through his conduct so I mean he must be applauded. So he reported it to the

07:15Treasure Trove system. Now the Treasure Trove system is unique to Scotland and they have a panel

07:23and they decide the value of the items, the market value basically of the items and its

07:29cultural significance and they put a reward, sorry a sum of £80,000 on the People's Hoard,

07:38a nice amount of money. I just want to put that in context though. The Galloway Hoard,

07:45that incredible collection of Viking era treasure, mostly silver, some gold and a lot of kind of silk

07:53and gemstones, that was valued at £2 million so the metal detectorists who found that really got

08:00a sizable sum. I mean it did end up in court, that's been resolved but just to give you the

08:06value, that was £2 million and we have the People's Hoard here at £80,000. Now it was decided

08:14by the panel that it was of such cultural significance that it should be held for the

08:21nation and it should go to NMS. So the £80,000 works its way through the system, NMS gets the

08:32money to buy it and then that money goes to the to the finder who gets this financial reward. So a

08:39great day for Marius Stephen but I mean I have spoken to him, I tried to get a hold of him

08:43yesterday to see if he wanted to say anything else, unfortunately I couldn't get him. But you know a

08:47really, really decent guy and you know so pleased that he you know did the right thing, reported it

08:56as he would and now has the reward and that satisfaction I suppose of this award and you

09:02know creating such excitement and interest in Scotland and it will now be held for the nation

09:07and presumably will go on show in Edinburgh. I mean that's yet to be decided, as I say NMS have

09:12started a fundraising campaign to pay for further research and just to tell us some more about it.

09:22But yeah a nice story, great story and a great find and a great artefact for Scotland for sure.

09:29You can read about the Hoard and everything contained within it as well as see a couple of

09:34pictures of it at scotsman.com. If you're looking for the story you can go to the heritage tab in

09:41the navigation bar, you'll see all the rest of Alison's coverage from recent weeks as well.

09:46Please follow us on Facebook, X and Instagram and go out and support local journalism, buy a copy

09:53of The Scotsman. Tomorrow we will have all the latest on Scottish politics and everything else

09:58from across the country and more widely the UK and abroad. Thanks for joining us. Thank you.

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