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But this hoard also tells us a great deal of what was happening back in York. There, the Vikings were becoming Christian but, as so often, the new converts were reluctant to abandon the symbols of their old religion-the Norse gods were not entirely dead. And so, on one coin minted at York around 920, we find the sword and name of the Christian St Peter, but intriguingly the 'i' of Petri-Peter-is in the shape of a hammer, the emblem of the old Norse god, Thor. It's a coin that shows us that the new faith uses the weapons of the old.
這一寶藏也揭示了當(dāng)時(shí)約克郡的狀況。維京人正在逐漸接受基督教，但仍不愿放棄舊宗教的個(gè)別符號象征。斯堪的納維亞的遠(yuǎn)古神靈仍有人信仰。920年在約克郡鑄造的一枚銀幣上有一柄劍和基督徒圣彼得的名字，但有意思的是，當(dāng)時(shí)彼得的拼寫為“Petri”，其中的“i”被畫成了一把錘子，這是北歐古老的神祇雷神索爾的象征，新的信仰沿用了舊宗教中的武器，
We can be pretty certain that this treasure was buried soon after 927. In that year, the Anglo-Saxon Athelstan, King of Wessex, finally defeated the Vikings, conquered York, and received the homage of rulers from Scotland and Wales. It was the biggest political event in Britain since the departure of the Romans. And the hoard contains one of the silver coins that Athelstan issued to celebrate it. On it, he gives himself a totally new title, never used before by any ruler: 'Athelstan Rex totius Britanniae'-Athelstan, King of all Britain. The modern idea of a united Britain starts here. Here's Michael Wood again:
我們能肯定的是，這批寶物的埋藏時(shí)間在927年后不久。因?yàn)樵谶@一年，韋塞克斯國王阿瑟斯坦最終擊敗了維京人，收回了約克郡，并獲得蘇格蘭和威爾士統(tǒng)治者的宣誓效忠。這是自羅馬人撤離之后英格蘭本土發(fā)生的最重大的歷史事件。這批寶藏中有一枚銀幣，便是阿瑟斯坦下令鑄造以示慶祝的。上面有一個(gè)他自封的前無古人的稱號：Alhelstan Rex totius Brtitanniae (不列顛全境之王阿瑟斯坦)。現(xiàn)代不列顛聯(lián)合王國的概念即源于此，雖然還要過八百年才能完全實(shí)現(xiàn)。不過阿瑟斯坦總被視為現(xiàn)代英國的締造者。邁克爾伍德解釋說：
"The wonderful thing about the treasure is that it hones in on the very moment that England was created as a kingdom and as a state. The early tenth century is the moment when these, what we might call 'national identities', start to be used for the first time.
這批寶藏的非凡意義在于它們指向英格蘭王國建立、成為統(tǒng)一國家的那一時(shí)刻。十世紀(jì)初正是國家認(rèn)同被初次提及之時(shí)。
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