1,100-year-old Viking treasure discovered in a common field by a local walker

Metal detectorists are people who walk along with a metal detector as a hobby to find rare treasures that are long forgotten and waiting to be discovered.

Pawel Bednarski, a metal detectorist in Norway has been incredibly lucky when last year he unearthed a rare Viking treasure near his home, LiveScience reports.

‘Exceptional find’

Bednarski, took his metal detector out on a ploughed field during a nice day in December last year when he made the discovery.

At first, he unearthed only a small ring which he didn’t think of much. While digging deeper, he then found the other pieces between a depth of only 2-7 centimetres.

Bednarski was not sure what he had found at first.

It wasn’t until I got home and rinsed the pieces underwater that I understood that this was an exciting find.

Birgit Maixner, anarchaeologist at Norway's University of Science and Technology (NTNU) in Trondheim, described the treasurecontaining 46 pieces of silver which date back around 1,100 years from the Viking age as an exceptional find, ScienceNorway reports.

It’s been many years since such a large Viking treasure was found in Norway.

The discovery sheds additional light on the Viking way of life at the time

The treasure contains 46 silver pieces which weigh a total of 1.5 ounces (42 grams).

Most of the pieces are fragmented and weigh less than one gram, this suggests that they were not only personal decorations but were also used as money to trade goods.

The discovery sheds further light on the Viking way of life, which is believed to have relied on a ‘bullion economy’ where precious metals were traded for other goods.

This is opposite to a ‘bartering economy’ in which a good-for-goodwas traded such as a cow for a sheep.

According to Maixner, Bednarski’s treasure find dates back to the eighth century and is not common to what has been found previously in Norway, but instead resembles usual finds in Denmark.

While it is unclear why the items ended up in a field, Maixner believes the owner travelled from Denmark to Norway, and either stashed away the treasure for later retrieval or it was an offering to the gods, Livescience reports.

Sources used:

-LiveScience: ‘Metal detectorist stumbles across Viking treasure hoard in Norway’

-ScienceNorway: ‘One Viking’s lost silver treasure discovered by metal detector enthusiast’