Cuerdale Hoard
buried hoard FOUND fame 2/5
Viking-age silver hoard of about 8,600 items (roughly 40 kg) found by workmen on the River Ribble in 1840 — one of the largest Viking silver hoards ever found outside Russia, deposited c. 905-910.
Resolved (1840-05-15): Found 15 May 1840 by workmen repairing the Ribble embankment at Cuerdale, Lancashire; claimed as treasure trove for the Duchy of Lancaster.
Scorecard
Exists
LIKELY
band 4/5 · raw +2.74
- +1.47 · On 15 May 1840 workmen repairing the southern embankment of the Ribble at…
- +0.72 · Coin evidence dated the hoard's deposition to c. 905-910, fitting the…
- +0.42 · The Irish annals record the expulsion of the Norse from Dublin in 902 CE, after…
Findable now
LONG-SHOT
band 2/5 · raw +0.00
Findable (frontier)
LONG-SHOT
band 2/5 · raw +0.00
Location hypotheses
NO_LOCATION_DATA
No location hypothesis has been recorded for this treasure, so there is nothing to plot — and this tool never fabricates a map or a dig site. Per the scoring gates, an absence of location data caps Findable now at band 2 (LONG-SHOT).
What would it take?
No emerging or speculative technique changes the picture yet — the frontier findability band (LONG-SHOT) equals the current band. A breakthrough here would need a genuinely new capability, not just a maturing one.
Evidence ledger (7 verified facts)
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The Irish annals record the expulsion of the Norse from Dublin in 902 CE, after which displaced Viking armies operated around the Irish Sea and into north-west England, including the Ribble corridor.known by 0910-01-01 · diagnosticity medium · confidence 0.85↳ Annals of Ulster, s.a. 902 (contemporary Irish annals) primary
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The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle documents warfare and shifting control across Northumbria and the north-west in the early tenth century — precisely the instability in which portable wealth was buried and not recovered.known by 0950-01-01 · diagnosticity low · confidence 0.85↳ Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, early tenth-century annals primary
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The Ribble at Cuerdale sits on the natural routeway linking Viking York with the Irish Sea — a geographic fact plain on any period map and known to antiquarians long before 1840.known by 1820-01-01 · diagnosticity low · confidence 0.85↳ Wikipedia: Cuerdale Hoard journalistic
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Silver — coin, ingots, and hack-silver — was the currency of the Viking world, and substantial Viking silver hoards were already known to British and Irish antiquarians by the early nineteenth century.known by 1830-01-01 · diagnosticity low · confidence 0.85↳ James Graham-Campbell, The Cuerdale Hoard and Related Viking-Age Silver and Gold (British Museum Press, 2011) academic
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Roman and early-medieval stray finds had been reported along the Ribble valley by eighteenth- and early-nineteenth-century antiquarians, marking the river corridor as archaeologically productive ground.known by 1830-01-01 · diagnosticity low · confidence 0.70↳ James Graham-Campbell, The Cuerdale Hoard and Related Viking-Age Silver and Gold (British Museum Press, 2011) academic
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On 15 May 1840 workmen repairing the southern embankment of the Ribble at Cuerdale struck a lead-lined chest holding about 8,600 silver items — coins, ingots, and hack-silver totalling roughly 40 kg.known by 1840-06-01 · diagnosticity high · confidence 0.98↳ Wikipedia: Cuerdale Hoard journalistic
“discovered on 15 May 1840 by workmen repairing the embankment”
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Coin evidence dated the hoard's deposition to c. 905-910, fitting the Dublin-Norse expulsion; the inquest declared it treasure trove for the Duchy of Lancaster and the bulk passed to the British Museum.known by 1842-01-01 · diagnosticity high · confidence 0.90↳ James Graham-Campbell, The Cuerdale Hoard and Related Viking-Age Silver and Gold (British Museum Press, 2011) academic