As you read this story, you will learn the following:
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A farm in the Norwegian mountains sits on the site of what was once a “mighty Viking farm” and has produced important Viking treasures.
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Deep beneath the floorboards of a small house, an excavation team discovered four silver bracelets dating back to the Viking Age, most likely the 9th century ADth century AD.
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The discovery of the silver bracelets was likely where they were originally buried, which sheds more light on the treasure’s origin story.
Silver was the Vikings’ treasure of choice. Their fondness for metals makes silver finds of great historical value – as is the recent discovery of a treasure in the mountains of Norway, which has remained undisturbed since the 9th century.th century AD.
Before farmer Tårn Sigve Schmidt can carve a new path for his tractor on his mountain farm near Ardal, northwest of Oslo, he has to call in archaeologists to make sure there are no unique areas he wants to disturb. He did a good thing.
Seven inches beneath the floorboards of what may have once been a Viking slave house, a team of archaeologists found four heavy silver bracelets, each decorated differently and likely from more than 1,100 years ago.
“At first, I thought it was a matter of some twisted copper wires often found in farm fields, but when I saw several copper wires next to each other, and they were not copper at all, but silver, I realized we had found something exciting,” Ola Tengesdal Lygre, a field archaeologist at the University of Stavanger, said in a translated statement.
Further investigation revealed that at one time there was a “large and powerful Viking farm” on the property, with multiple houses and an animal sanctuary. The location allows the owners to control the entrance to the fjord. Excavators also found soapstone jars, rivets, blades and whetstones for sharpening knives.
But nothing is more exciting than buried treasure.
“This is absolutely the most important thing that has ever happened to me in my career,” Volker Demuth, project manager at the University of Stavanger Archaeological Museum, said in a statement. “This is a unique find because we rarely find items like this in their original location. Typically, these valuable items are found in fields that have been plowed, where the items have been completely removed from their original context. Because the silver vault has not been moved, it can give us a whole new insight into Viking Age life and society.”
The bracelets were transported to the museum in clumps of earth where they were found. X-rays were taken and the team will test soil samples to help understand the environment more broadly, including whether the silver was wrapped in cloth when buried. The bracelets are reminiscent of a necklace found in Hjelmeland in 1769, and archaeologists have yet to rule out a link between the two finds.
Experts believe the farm was once the victim of arson, likely coinciding with a turbulent period in Norway’s Viking Age (from 800 AD to 1050 AD). The farm and the silver found were most likely from 9th Archaeologists believe that centuries.
“If the people living on this farm had to flee an attack,” Demuth said, “you would naturally hide the valuables you have before escaping to the mountains. Maybe in a place where you wouldn’t expect the treasure to be hidden.”
The team has yet to find anything more in the same area, but they will expand their search as a result of the silver discovery.
Since there were no silver mines in Norway at the time of the stash, any silver the Vikings had had to come from abroad, either through trade, as gifts, or even as loot from raids. The Vikings traded more silver than gold, which may have been a by-product of the areas they traveled.
“This is an absolutely remarkable find,” said museum director Ole Madsen. “It gives us a completely unique insight into one of the most central eras in Norway, the Viking Age. We will put it on display as soon as it is ready for display.”
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