Ankur Desai
๐ค SpeakerAppearances Over Time
Podcast Appearances
All along this street there are Syrian businesses selling everything from gold to spices.
Some of those who fled here have managed to make a living but they've always faced a lot of restrictions.
Syrians are not supposed to move from the cities where they are first registered.
They need permission to do that.
It's always been hard to get a work permit.
Officially they are still free to remain here.
But people tell me beneath the surface there is pressure to make them go.
Now to a discovery that transports us back to the reign of King David I of Scotland.
He was on the throne in the first half of the 12th century, and it was during his reign that the first coins being used in Scotland were actually minted in the country.
Prior to that time, they were made outside.
The earliest such coin has now been acquired by the National Museum of Scotland, prompting the headline Saved for the Nation After 900 Years.
It was actually discovered nearly two years ago by a metal detectorist in woods in central Scotland.
My colleague Julian Warricker has been hearing more from a senior curator of medieval archaeology and history at National Museum Scotland, Dr Alice Blackwell.
This is a really tremendous discovery for Scotland and for our understanding of the early Scottish Kingdom.
It's the first coin struck within Scotland at a proper Scottish mint that's known to have survived.
I have, yeah.
Presumably it was buried in this one place where it was found for all of its lifespan, was it?
It was probably just a simple casual stray loss.
which reads Edinburgh, which is the name of the mint, and Erebald, which is the name of the moneyer, the person that was in charge of minting coins at that mint.
You mentioned the man with the metal detector.