Curator's Choice: Andrew Woods, Curator of Numismatics for York Museums Trust, on theYorkshire Museum's collection of Yorkshire Hoards going global with Google

"The numismatic collection - money and medals - numbers over 40,000 objects and is one of thestrongest in northern England.

Most of that material has been excavated with new finds coming up every year from farmers, metaldetectorists and archaeologists.

A lot of that excavated material comes in the form of hoards - accumulations of wealth buried inthe ground.

Yorkshire Hoards is a project between Google Cultural Institute and York Museums Trust lookingat these hoards and what they can tell us about the history of the region.

Over the past 3,000 years, from the Bronze Age through to the 17th century, very large numbersof hoards have gone into the ground across Yorkshire.

These represented the safest way to store your wealth in a period before there were banks: 'Iknow where I buried it, I can go and dig it up again at some point in the future.'

Quite why they all went into the ground is slightly more difficult. Some went into the ground,in all probability, because of unrest - times where there's warfare see lots of hoards go into theground.

Others may have more to do with offerings or rituals to the gods, that type of thing. The lasttype would be savings, gradually added to over many years.

The potential of these hoards is enormous - they can tell us about power, about belief, aboutritual, all about the local and international links of the person who buried them.

"In short, they give us a window into the range of different periods across theregion."

For more information on Google Cultural Institute, see:
Google Cultural Institute(www.google.com/culturalinstitute/about/)

To view the Google Cultural Institute online exhibit, see:
3000 BC - 1643Yorkshire Hoards (www.google.com/culturalinstitute/exhibit/yorkshire-hoards/QRq2DoZm)

To read the complete article, see:
Curator's Choice: The Yorkshire archaeology Hoards which are going global with Google(www.culture24.org.uk/history-and-heritage/archaeology/art505495-curator-choice-the-yorkshire-archaeology-hoards-which-are-going-global-with-google)