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St Ninian's Isle Treasure


Styles
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Should the treasure have a permenant home in the new museum?  

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  1. 1. Should the treasure have a permenant home in the new museum?

    • Yes
      76
    • No
      9


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I heard on radio Shetland the other day the guy who found the St Ninian's Isle treasure saying it should be returned to Shetland and find a perminant home in the new museum. But the museum in Edinburgh said that it would not do that as not as many people would be able to view it if it was in Shetland.

 

I for one think it should be returned for the following reasons:

1. As we now have a state of the art building to house it, it would be a prominant and important display (unlike where it is in the Edinburgh museum),

2. It has more interest to Shetland folk and at the moment these people cant view it unless by chance they travel all the way to Edinburgh,

3. If academics etc want to see it we now have better travel connections,

4. Would be of interest to tourists.

5. It was found in Shetland.

6. We could lend it now and then to Edinburgh if they want more people to see it, they may then actually have it displayed prominantly instead of hidden away.

 

What do the rest of you think,?

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I heard Mr. Amenity Trust (can't remember his name) saying that the St. Ninians silver wasn't on the list of items loaned from the Scottish museum in Edinburgh at the moment, but they were expecting to have it at some point next year for a period.

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Having it for a period is not as good as having it in up here where it belongs as styles said we have a new museum that can hold it. It would be better for folk from here to actually see it as they wont have to go to edinburgh to see the real thing and get more tourists go to the museum.

 

Let Edinburgh have the replicas instead of the shetland museum

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Edinburgh is more easily accessible to more people. Leave it there and we can have the replica.

 

Or get someone to mix up the treasure behind their back with the replica and then someone from Shetland choose the left or the right hand. :D

 

Seriously, does it really matter whether it is real or a replica? I wonder how many paintings hanging in galleries are the real McCoy.

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Does anyone really care where the genuine treasure is? Im thinking about the stone of Scone (I think thats how you spell it). As Scots, do we really care where the genuine stone is? Could we really tell the difference?

Why demand the treasure if we cant tell if its fake or not?

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we know that the treasure up here is a fake and I think it about time we had that treasure returned where it rightfully belongs in the new Shetland museum, if they don’t think it is secure enough lets make a special case in the museum to hold it that is secure enough.

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In practical terms it matters little where the genuine item is, as especially behind glass I would imagine even experts would have a great deal of difficulty in identifying the genuine pieces.

 

However, there is a principle at stake, it was found it Shetland, it had been in Shetland, by all accounts, a very long time, Shetland is it's "home". Add to that the factors of the historical ownership of Shetland, and justification to have it anywhere on the Scottish mainland just gets murkier. We may have been Scottish when it was discovered, and had been Scottish for a lot of the time it had been buried on "da Isle", but we'd almost certainly been Danish for a while of it's burial time too. Who's was it in the first place, who put it where it was found, what was it's purpose, why was it put there, where did it originate from, etc etc. I'm no expert on the subject, despite being brought up within sight of the discovery site, but as far as I'm aware any and all attempted answers to the above, and more questions have relied on supposition, conjecture and educated guesses. The only thing concerning it that can be proven beyond all doubt is that it was discovered in a hole in the floor of a very old and ruined kirk.

 

It may well be that it is a very Scottish artefact, and actually is in a very appropriate place where it is in Edinburgh, but it equally may not, given the multinational interests and influences all through Shetland history. Without much greater knowledge and understanding of the history of the items, which is unlikely to ever be forthcoming, it's difficult, in my opinion at least, to see how Edinburgh can make a case to hold the items, unless on technicalities. It's historical value in a Scottish-wide context is, at best open to debate, it's historical value in a Shetland context isn't, simply due to the location of it's discovery. I'd be all for having the genuine article here, and Edinburgh having the replica, if they consider the items of adequate importance to Scotland to justify illustrating them.

 

As regards the new Museum, it should have been designed and built to a standard that was capable of adequately securely housing the treasure, regardless of what the chances of it coming back are. If the facilities exist, it adds leverage to any discussion, if they're not it empowers the opposition.

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I agree, and i favour shetland. I think a key point is that for edinburgh they are remarkable artefacts, alongside many others, whilst here and in context they are truly exceptional. I know fine well that it would be nigh on impossible to distinguish replic from real, but as i said in the museum thread, i feel there is a marketing element to it. For anyone with a serious interest in antiquity there may well be a case for travelling north to see the 'real' thing, even if indistinguishable.

 

After all, would they have secured Charles and Camilla lookalikes to open the joint, even if indistinguishable? :wink:

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All this concern about security of the treasure.

 

Who do they think is going to steal it? And what do they think they would do with it, if it were to be stolen?

 

Who the hell would want to steal the St Ninians Isle treasure? The Jarls squad perhaps? :D

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A few years ago I was told by someone who had visited Edinburgh and wanted to see the Ninian's Isle treasure that he could not see it as it was in storage. What use is that, here in Shetland it would be home and on show all the time. How can more people see them if they are not even on display.

 

Arathea

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