While Searching For A Missing Gold Earring In Their Backyard, This Norwegian Family Discovered Viking Artifacts
A family in Norway got more than what they bargained for after a search for a missing gold earring turned up some Viking-era artifacts.
The Aasviks live on Jomfruland, a small island on the southeast coast of Norway. They had ventured into their yard with a metal detector, and within moments, the machine picked up a signal near the base of a large tree behind their house.
When they dug down into the ground, expecting to uncover the modern piece of jewelry, they discovered two ancient relics instead—brooches made from bronze and traces of gold, indicating that they were once gilded.
Vibeke Lia, the lead archaeologist from the Vestfold and Telemark County Municipality, determined that the brooches were from the ninth century.
They were likely part of a Viking burial for an aristocratic woman. Brooches were often found in the graves of Viking women.
One of the brooches was oval-shaped and used to pin shoulder straps to the front of Viking halter dresses.
The other was a circular dress brooch. Its design and decoration are associated with the early Viking town of Ribe, Denmark, since it matches the molds archaeologists have found that date back to sometime between 780 and 850 C.E. They were both engraved with intricate carvings of animals and geometric patterns.
The finds are significant for being the first evidence from the Viking Age, confirming that people were present on the island at that time.
Previously, historical records of Viking settlement only went as far back as the early Middle Ages and made no mention of people living on Jomfruland.
tsuguliev – stock.adobe.com – illustrative purposes only
According to Lia, a collection of cairns, which are piles of loose stones typically used as markers or burial mounds, had been located throughout southwest Jomfruland. The discovery of the brooches proves that the cairns were created by Vikings.
The fact that the artifacts had been buried in a yard rather than a farm, where many other treasures have been found, may have helped the items remain well-preserved. Since the land had never been plowed, the brooches were in relatively good condition.
The brooches were sent to Oslo for further analysis. Hopefully, the Aasviks were able to recover the lost earring they had originally been hunting for!
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