NEXT Tuesday evening the annual joint meeting of the Tweeddale Society and the Peeblesshire Archaeological Society will shine a light on the dark ages.

Dr Martin Goldberg of National Museums Scotland will present International connections in the world-famous Galloway Hoard.

Acquired for the nation in 2017 following a public fundraising campaign, the Galloway Hoard is the richest and most varied collection of rare and exotic Viking-age objects ever found in Britain and Ireland.

The internationally significant discovery from 2014 contains silver, gold and jewelled treasure from Ireland, the Anglo-Saxon world, the Holy Roman and Byzantine Empires, and beyond.

Some of the artefacts are of types never found before in the UK; some are known only in hoards from outside Scotland; and several seem to be unique survivals.

As well as precious metals and unusual gemstones a range of organic materials have survived, including wood, leather, linen, wool and Scotland’s earliest examples of silk, originating thousands of miles to the east.

Such archaeological treasures rarely survive and in this case they open up fresh perspectives for considering the exceptional range of international connections to which this magnificent collection testifies.

For experts the Galloway Hoard brings together a stunning variety of objects in one discovery, hinting at hitherto unknown connections between people across Europe and perhaps further afield.

Dr Martin Goldberg is the Principal Curator of Medieval Archaeology and History at the National Museum of Scotland.

He spent 10 years as a field archaeologist and heritage consultant in both the USA and on projects across Britain.

He has been the project curator for the Glenmorangie Research project since 2008 and has co-authored two books Early Medieval Scotland: Individuals, Communities and Ideas (2012) and Scotland’s Early Silver (2017), as well as co-curating the two exhibitions that were the main products of the National Museum Scotland partnership with the Glenmorangie Company.

He has also curated the 2013 exhibition Vikings: the untold story, and he co-curated the NMS Celts exhibition (developed in partnership with the British Museum 2015-16), also writing several of the essays for the accompanying book.

He is currently leading the multi-disciplinary research project investigating the hoard.

This important event in the calendar of our two societies is being generously sponsored this year by the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, in the form of grant-aid from its Regional Fund.

Lectures supported in this way are known as Buchan Lectures after the Society’s founder David Steuart Erskine, 11th Earl of Buchan.

As this is the joint meeting of the two societies, the talk will be held in the Peebles Eastgate Theatre.

The lecture starts at 7.30pm.

Members of the Tweeddale Society and the Peeblesshire Archaeological Society admitted free; non-members may purchase tickets from the box office at the Eastgate Theatre - Tel. 01721 725777; www.eastgatearts.com.