It takes a lot to stand out amid the splendour of the #GallowayHoard ✨

And yet, an unlikely champion of the heartstrings has emerged. Because they're the Viking-age objects we deserve AND need right now. Of course, we're talking about...
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Dirt-balls!
(A thread, 1/5) These aren't just any dirt-balls.

While it may seem strange for an object with little obvious inherent value to end up in a hoard, everything in the #GallowayHoard was treasured.

Under a microscope, the dirt-balls were revealed to have "hidden constellations of gold" 🌠
(2/5)

With the #GallowayHoard exhibition open this Saturday until 12 September, we thought it's a good time to ask:

What does the Hoard reveal to us about the Who/What/Where/How/Why/When of the Viking Age in Scotland?🤔

Let's take a look in this THREAD...1/9 WHO?
Pop history tends to view the Viking Age as a clash between well-defined, opposed groups who wanted naught to do with each other. Vikings, Picts, Britons, Saxons; nice neat lines.

So why does the #GallowayHoard have Norse silver, Christian relics and Anglian runes? 2/9

Can a vase reflect the experience of living between two cultures? 🏺

Short answer: yes 😌
Longer answer: yeeeeeeeeeessss 😉

Keep reading to explore how Choi Keeryong's playful piece Korean Glass 15 explores this 'in-betweenness'.

🧵 1/11 "I want to create a tension in my work. That's how I provoke some feeling of uncertainty, of ambiguity, in the viewer."

- Choi Keeryong

2/11

Did you know that we have a range of resources to support and welcome people with autism to the National Museum of Scotland?

Thread!

More info: nms.ac.uk/autismresources

@AutisminMuseums To support visitors with additional communication needs planning their visit, we've created 20 communication cards with pictures of our most popular objects in the museum.

These can be printed out and used to identify what you would like to see when visiting us.

Connect with #EdSciFest this summer at National Museums Scotland. Dive deep into our seas and oceans in a multi-sensory exploration of everything marine in Pale Blue Dot and learn about Scotland’s diverse seas and the many threats facing our marine life in Scotland's Precious Seas.

#EdSciFest

In 1880 a mysterious figure was found face down 400ft from the shores of Loch Leven at Ballachulish.

Nearly 5ft tall and made of a single piece of alder with pebbles for eyes, it was radiocarbon-dated to ~600 BC. But who, or what, does it depict?
#WomensHistoryMonth THREAD 1/7 Theories abound. The figure appears to depict a woman or girl, and a fertility goddess is one possibility.

When the figure was found it looked much different and was more intact, as seen in this entry in the Proceedings of @socantscot from 1881 2/7