The term "hoard" implies that the tools and their container were
deliberately hidden by someone who intended to reclaim them later.
The hoard might represent a ritual deposit made by relatives when
the owner died, although no known burials have been found in
association with tool hoards and few have been directly associated
with settlements. If the tools were purposely buried or
hidden in boggy heath, this may have been for safekeeping in a
period of trouble or because the owner was leaving and could not
carry them on the journey. The tools are quite varied;
perhaps it was a small homesteader's tool kit, or it may have
belonged to a smith or metalworker.
Archaeologists know very little about settlement in Annandale
during this time. The people who lived in the area may have
been the descendants of earlier British tribes, Anglo-Saxons from
Northumbria, settlers of Scandinavian Viking origin, or a
mixture of these cultural groups. Archaeological field
surveys in the area where the Stidriggs hoard was found identified
some evidence of farming, small settlements and a possible mill but
these have not been excavated.