Archaeologists have unearthed a hoard of Viking treasure that was hidden for more than a 1,000 years.
The treasure was found on a mountainside in Årdal, Hjelmeland municipality, in Norway, the University of Stavanger (UiS) announced in a press release.
The treasure consists of four silver bracelets, each featuring different decorations. Based on their appearance, they have been roughly dated to the 9th-10th centuries, Volker Demuth, an archaeologist with the UiS Museum of Archaeology, who was part of the discovery team, told Newsweek.
This suggests the artifacts date to the Viking Age, a period in medieval history between roughly the late 8th and 11th centuries, when the Vikings—a Scandinavian seafaring people—raided, colonized, and traded widely across Europe and beyond.
"This is undoubtedly the most significant event of my career," Demuth told ScienceNorway.
The treasure was first spotted by UiS field archaeologists Mari Krogstad Samuelsen and Ola Tengesdal Lygre. The researchers were part of a team, alongside Demuth, who were brought in to survey the site before the construction of a tractor road on the mountainside by a local farmer, who owns the land.
"At first I thought it was a question of some twisted copper wires that you can often find in agricultural land, but when I saw that there were several lying next to each other and that they were not copper at all, but silver, I realized that we had found something exciting," Lygre said in the press release.
The treasure was found beneath the floor of what was once a small house that formed part of a larger Viking Age farm, according to the archaeologists. The house—whose remains are very well-preserved—may have belonged to slaves who lived on the farm, the archaeologists suspect.
"The excavation shows that there was a large and powerful Viking farm here, consisting of several houses for both people and animals. We have found remains of soapstone pots, rivets, knife blades and whetstones for sharpening tools," Demuth said.
The fact that the treasure was found during a scientific excavation is significant because it enables archaeologists to place the bracelets in their proper context.
"[The treasure] is a unique find, because we very rarely find such objects exactly where they were placed. As a rule, such valuable objects are discovered on fields that have been plowed, where an object has been completely taken out of its original context. Since the silver hoard has not been moved, it can give us completely new insights into life and society in the Viking Age," Demuth said.
"The find-spot has not been disturbed by modern activities, therefore the archaeological remains are comparably well preserved, directly underneath the surface," he told Newsweek.
Evidence from the excavation indicates that the farm was burned down at one point, which might explain why the treasure was buried. In fact, the age of the treasure coincides with a period of significant unrest in the Viking world.
"If people who lived on this farm had to flee from an attack, it would be natural to hide away the valuables you had before escaping to the mountains. And perhaps in a place where you wouldn't have thought that a treasure was hidden," Demuth said.
The bracelets have not yet been completely excavated because they were removed from the site together with the surrounding soil. This block of earth is being carefully analyzed and the objects will be dug out in the lab under controlled conditions.
An initial survey indicated that the earth contains four bracelets, which appear to be made from "very pure" silver with almost no signs of corrosion, Demuth told Newsweek.
Thanks to the "excellent" preservation conditions of the archaeological context, researchers expect to obtain a more accurate date for when the treasure was hidden after analyzing samples from fireplaces and burnt features within the Viking building.
"This is an absolutely fantastic find, which gives us completely unique knowledge about one of the most central eras in Norway, namely the Viking Age," museum director Ole Madsen said in the press release.
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