# Hacksilver > Mediated Wiki article. Canonical URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Hacksilver > Markdown URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Hacksilver.md > Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hacksilver > Source revision: 1321333631 > License: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/) {{short description|Fragments of cut and bent silver items used as currency}} [[File:Cuerdale hoard viking silver british museum.JPG|thumb|The mixed Viking [Cuerdale Hoard](/source/Cuerdale_Hoard), deposited in England before c. 910, also contains 8,600 coins, as well as these ingots and pieces of jewellery and plate.]] thumb|Hacksilver from the medieval period, Museum für Hamburgische Geschichte, Hamburg, Germany. thumb|Viking age settlement, eighth to eleventh centuries; trade and raid routes are marked green. '''Hacksilver''' (sometimes referred to as '''hacksilber''') consists of fragments of cut and bent [silver](/source/silver) items that were used as [bullion](/source/bullion) or as [currency](/source/currency) by weight during the [Bronze Age](/source/Bronze_Age) and [Middle Ages](/source/Middle_Ages). ==Use== Hacksilver was common among the [Norsemen](/source/Norsemen) or [Vikings](/source/Vikings), as a result of both their raiding and trade. Hacksilver may also have been used by [Romans](/source/Ancient_Rome) in their dealings with [Pictish tribes](/source/Picts).{{cite news | title='Significant' Roman silver hoard found in Fife by teenager | url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-edinburgh-east-fife-40778533 | date=1 August 2017 | publisher=BBC News | access-date=1 August 2017 }} The name of the [ruble](/source/ruble), the basic unit of modern Russian currency, is derived from the Russian verb рубить ('rubit'), meaning "to chop", from the practice of the [Rus'](/source/Rus'_(people)), described by [Ahmad ibn Fadlan](/source/Ahmad_ibn_Fadlan) visiting the [Volga Vikings](/source/Volga_Vikings) in 922.{{citation needed|date=August 2015}} An example of the related Viking weighing scale with weights was found on the [Isle of Gigha](/source/Gigha).{{cite web|url=http://www.hunterian.gla.ac.uk/archive/vikings/weights.html|title=Viking weights|publisher=University of Glasgow|access-date=2010-04-11|archive-date=2011-02-15|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110215005124/http://www.hunterian.gla.ac.uk/archive/vikings/weights.html|url-status=dead}} Hacksilver may be derived from silver tableware, Roman or Byzantine, church plate and silver objects such as [reliquaries](/source/reliquaries) or book-covers, and jewellery from a range of areas. [Hoard](/source/Hoard)s may typically include a mixture of hacksilver, coins, [ingot](/source/ingot)s and complete small pieces of jewellery. Hoards of hacksilver are also well known in pre and post-coinage antiquity, in European and Near Eastern contexts. The [Cisjordan Corpus](/source/Cisjordan_Corpus) (c. 1200–586 BC) is the largest identified concentration of pre-coinage hacksilver hoards, and provides key evidence for the Phoenician and wider Near Eastern roots of the development and proliferation of the earliest silver coinages in the Greek world and western tradition. [[File:Eastern Hacksilber from the Levant 425-420 BCE.jpg|thumb|upright=1.5|Eastern hacksilver from the [Achaemenid](/source/Achaemenid) [Levant](/source/Levant), including jewellery and Greek coins, 425–420 BC. These formed a part of [Achaemenid coinage](/source/Achaemenid_coinage).]] The widespread adoption of Greek silver coinages by c. 480 BC appears to have developed first out of cooperative relations between Greeks and Phoenicians, then partly as a competitive, culturally consolidating response to earlier Phoenician expansion and domination of silver trade, which had been conducted with hacksilver. Within the Cisjordan Corpus, a concentration of hacksilver hoards occurs in a part of southern Phoenicia that was recorded in antiquity as a territory of the Shardana tribes of Sea Peoples associated with Sardinia. Thompson, in her analyses of the hacksilver pieces, relates this textual evidence to lead isotope ratios that have ore signatures matching Sardinian ores. This is the first recognized material evidence linking the two regions in this critical period.{{cite book |first=Christine M. |last=Thompson |year=2011 |chapter=Silver in the age of iron: an overview |editor-first=C. |editor-last=Giardino |title=Archeometallurgia: dalla conoscenza alla fruizione. Atti del convegno Cavallino, Lecce, 22-25/05/2006 |location=Bari |publisher=Edipuglia |pages=121–32 |isbn=978-88-7228-649-4 }} The same hacksilver hoards have provided the first recognized provenance-evidence for far-reaching contact between Europe and Asia related to the prehistoric trafficking of metals.{{cite journal | last1 = Thompson | first1 = C. M | last2 = Skaggs | first2 = S. | year = 2013 | title = King Solomon's Silver? Southern Phoenician Hacksilber Hoards and the Location of Tarshish | journal = Internet Archaeology | volume = 35 | issue = 35| doi = 10.11141/ia.35.6 | doi-access = free }}{{cite book |last=Balmuth |first=M. S. |last2=Thompson |first2=C. M. |year=2000 |chapter=Hacksilber: recent approaches to the study of hoards of uncoined silver |editor-first=B. |editor-last=Klengel |editor2-first=B. |editor2-last=Weisser |trans-title=Acts of the XIIth International Numismatic Congress, 9–13th September, Berlin, 1997 |title=XII. Internationaler Numismatischer Kongress, Akten Berlin |pages=159–69 |isbn=3-7861-2373-X }} ==Hacksilver hoards== * The 4th or 5th century [Traprain Law Treasure](/source/Traprain_Law_Treasure) hoard consists of four silver coins and over 24 kilograms of sliced-up Late Roman silver tableware, much of it of very high quality. Whether this was handed over by Romans to the [Pict](/source/Pict)ish occupants of the site, or the products of raids on [Roman Britain](/source/Roman_Britain), is unclear. * The [Vale of York hoard](/source/Vale_of_York_hoard) includes 617 silver coins and hacksilver. * The [Cuerdale Hoard](/source/Cuerdale_Hoard) includes 8,600 items, silver coins and hacksilver.{{Cite web|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/history/ancient/vikings/cuerdale_01.shtml|title=BBC - History - Ancient History in depth: The Cuerdale Hoard|website=www.bbc.co.uk}} * The [Skaill Hoard](/source/Skaill_Hoard), the largest Viking Age silver hoard found in Scotland, consists of over 100 items, including jewelry, a few coins and assorted hacksilver. The hoard, dated to between 950 and 970, was found in [Skaill](/source/Bay_of_Skaill), Sandwick, Orkney, in 1858.{{Cite web|url=http://nms.scran.ac.uk/database/record.php?usi=000-190-004-111-C|title=National Museums of Scotland - Hacksilver|website=nms.scran.ac.uk}}{{Cite web|url=http://www.orkneyjar.com/history/skaillhoard.htm|title=Orkneyjar - The Skaill Viking Hoard in Sandwick, Orkney.|website=www.orkneyjar.com}}{{cite journal | url=http://ads.ahds.ac.uk/catalogue/adsdata/PSAS_2002/pdf/vol_107/107_114_135.pdf | title=The Viking-age silver and gold hoards of Scandinavian character from Scotland | author=Graham-Campbell, J A | date=1978 |author-link1=James Graham-Campbell| journal=Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland | volume=107 | pages=114–135| doi=10.9750/PSAS.107.114.135 }} * The main [Penrith Hoard](/source/Penrith_Hoard) is of Viking-period [penannular brooch](/source/penannular_brooch)es, but a separate hoard found very close by includes many pieces of hacksilver. * The 'southern Phoenician' hacksilver hoards in the Cisjordan Corpus were found at [Ein Hofez](/source/Ein_Hofez), [Tell Keisan](/source/Tell_Keisan), [Dor](/source/Tel_Dor) and [Akko](/source/Akko).{{cite web|url=http://intarch.ac.uk/journal/issue35/6/3-1.html|title=Internet Archaeol. 35. Thompson and Skaggs. Initial assessments|website=intarch.ac.uk}} == Sources == * {{Cite book |last1=Graham-Campbell |first1=James |last2=Batey |first2=Colleen E. |title=Vikings in Scotland: An Archaeological Survey |publisher=Edinburgh University Press |year=1998 |pages=243 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5tPSivo8VRwC |isbn=0-7486-0641-6}} * [http://ads.ahds.ac.uk/catalogue/adsdata/PSAS_2002/pdf/vol_107/107_114_135.pdf James Graham-Campbell: The Viking-age silver and gold hoards of Scandinavian character from Scotland] * [http://museoreinasofia.mcu.es/museos/docs/MC/ActasNumis/Reasons_for_hiding_Viking_Age.pdf M. Bogucki: Reasons for hiding Viking Age hack silver hoards]{{Dead link|date=January 2020 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }} * [http://nms.scran.ac.uk/database/results.php?QUICKSEARCH=1&search_term=Hacksilver Hacksilver in the database of the National Museums of Scotland] * [https://www.britishmuseum.org/search_results.aspx?searchText=hacksilver Hacksilver in the database of the British Museum] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160303201007/http://www.britishmuseum.org/search_results.aspx?searchText=hacksilver |date=2016-03-03 }} * [http://opencontext.org/projects/CF179695-1E6A-440F-1DDB-4FEA7B02A5B5 Hacksilber Project] == References == {{reflist}} Category:Viking treasure troves Category:Denominations (currency) Category:Germanic archaeological artifacts Category:Silver objects Category:Types of archaeological artefact --- Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Hacksilver](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hacksilver) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hacksilver?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.