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Archaeologists in Sweden have unearthed an exclusive treasure trove of jewelry dating back around 1000 years to the Viking Age. discovery, he said in a statement.
Researchers from Sweden’s National Historical Museums were excavating a Viking-era settlement in Viggbyholm, a district north of Stockholm, when they found a small ceramic vessel hidden beneath the remains of a building’s floor. Inside, they found 8 couple-style neck rings. , a finger ring, two beads and two arm rings. They also discovered a linen bag containing 12 coin pendants (which are pieces used as jewelry).
Archaeologists sent the to Acta Konserveringscentrum, a conservation company in Stockholm, to be cleaned.
“It’s anything you’re probably only experiencing once in your life,” Lingström says in the statement. “When I started conscientiously cutting the neck rings one by one, I had this ordinary feeling of ‘They just keep coming and going. ‘”
The researchers said other people lived in the settlement for several hundred years, starting around 400 CE through the Viking Age (800-1050) and into the early Middle Ages. So far, they have exhibited more than 20 homes and buildings at the site, along with a variety of other artifacts that add rings of amulets and arrows.
Although the researchers were surprised and very happy to find all the jewelry, they were interested in all 12 pieces. Some originated in Europe, in regions such as Bohemia, Bavaria and England, while others were Arabic currencies called dirhams.
Coin makers minted one of the European coins in Rouen, a city in Normandy, France, in the tenth century. Until now, researchers only knew the way of life of this rare piece through the drawings of an eighteenth-century book.
Taken together, the pieces suggest that other people living in Scandinavia in the Viking Age participated in a large-scale industry and established remote relationships.
Investigators don’t know why the former owners chose to hide the jewelry, though they say other people tend to bury valuables underground at times of unrest or tumult. The team will want to conduct additional studies to determine if this is the case. or if something else triggered the burial of such a valuable hiding place.