00:00My name is Matthew Knight, I'm Senior Curator of the Chalcolithic and Bronze Age Collections here at the National Museum of Scotland.
00:08The Peebles Hoard is a collection of late Bronze Age artefacts dating to around 3000 years ago.
00:16We've got bronze objects as well as organic objects all gathered together and placed in a pit in Peebleshire.
00:22So the Peebles Hoard came up in July 2020 by metal detecting and it was reported to the Treasure Trove Unit
00:30who contacted archaeologists and conservators at National Museums Scotland to come out and assist with the excavation.
00:38The hoard was block lifted and it was brought to the National Museums Collection Centre
00:44where we undertook a laboratory excavation which is a really careful, fine detailed excavation of the material
00:52that couldn't be done in the field. The material is so fragile and so diverse in its character
00:59that it needed very environmentally controlled conditions.
01:03The material that survives in the Peebles Hoard is remarkable.
01:08It's not just the preservation of 3000 year old bronze objects, it's also the survival of glimpses of leather,
01:16straps, chunks of woods as well as woven textiles.
01:21This is material that was made over 3000 years ago and has survived intact in the ground throughout all of that time.
01:30It's the glimpses of material culture that we so rarely see from prehistory
01:36but we know must have been such an integral part of their lives.
01:39One of the most intriguing things about the Peebles Hoard is how much there is to understand about it.
01:46It's a really complex set of objects that appear to be interlinked in some way.
01:52So this process of excavating the hoard and laying out all the different components
01:58is just the very start of a much longer research and conservation project
02:03that will ultimately shape not only how we understand these objects from this moment in time
02:08but also how they fit in with a much broader picture of ancient Scotland and its position within Europe.
02:14So this quite spectacular object here is what's known as a rattle pendant
02:19and this is a series of interlinked rings with bronze pendants hanging off it
02:25and the idea is that this would have hung as an ornament perhaps off a horse or another sort of garment
02:31and as it was moved it would have rattled and made a noise.
02:35But these are incredibly rare objects.
02:37There are two from the Peebles Hoard and these are the first examples known from Scotland
02:42and they have parallels in other parts of mainland continental Europe.
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