A family stumbled upon a once-in-a-life time discovery in their yard while looking for a lost earring, uncovering millennia-old Viking treasure.
The Norwegian family was using a metal detector in a bid to find a lost earring but instead uncovered a signal underneath a tree behind their house.
When they dug down, they were stunned to find bronze Viking burial ornaments, that experts say were once burnished with gold.
Now, the family’s remote island home on Jomfruland has become the apple of history buff’s eyes.
Vibeke Lia, archaeologist with the Vestfold and Telemark County Council, told Live Science that the artifacts may be from as far back as the first Viking Age, between 793AD and 1066AD.
The larger artifact found in the grave is an oval-shaped brooch that would have been worn by a woman on a halter dress, to fasten the shoulder straps at the front, Lia said.
Such brooches were commonly found in the graves of Viking women, and its style was characteristic of the ninth century.
“They come in pairs, one for each strap, so there should be another one there,” she said.
Lia noted that several piles of loose rock, known as cairns, were previously been found in southwest Jomfruland.
While researchers supposed the cairns could have been made in the Viking Age, there was no mention that people lived on Jomfruland before the first historical records were made in the Middle Ages, she said.
The new discovery of what appears to be the grave of an aristocratic Viking woman has now suggested that the cairns were made by Vikings themselves.
Lia also said: “They are in pretty good condition compared to most metal-detecting finds we get, because this site has never been plowed.”
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Jomfruland is on Norway’s southeast coast, facing the Skagerrak strait and Denmark.
Many of its houses are vacation homes, and about 75 people live there permanently
Kulturarv in Vestfold and Telemark County Council said on Facebook: “The Aasvik Family at Jomfruland was supposed to be looking for a lost gold earring with a metal detector, and as soon as they turned on the metal detector, they found something, but not the jewelry they had lost.
“Found was from the Viking era! A very well-preserved bowl-shaped buckle, and another item that matches both in dating and style.
“We think this is a woman’s grave that is preserved in the family garden, and we think she was buried there in the 800s.
“We congratulate the family who found the first safe Viking time find at Jomfruland! And last not least, they did everything correctly and contacted us first.”
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