An exciting discovery has been made just centimeters below the soil in Stjørdal, near Trondheim. Pawel Bednarski took a metal detector out to his field right before Christmas last year and uncovered a treasure trove of Viking objects. The find consisted of 46 silver objects – including finger rings, coins, jewelry – and dates to the Viking Age. At first Bednarski did not know what he was looking at as the pieces were covered in clay. After rinsing them at home, he was delighted at what he saw.
Photo Credit: Birgit Maixner, NTNU Science Museum, via lifeinnorway.net
When Bednarski got archeologists involved, specifically the NTNU Science Museum, they realized how exceptional this find really was. NTNU archaeologist Birgit Maixner stated, “It has been many years since such a large treasure find from the Viking Age has been made in Norway.”
The pieces from the discovery give archaeologists much insight into the period and economy from which they came. Many of the silver pieces they uncovered were broken into fragments, which tells Birgit: “This find is from a time when silver pieces that were weighed were used as means of payment. This system is called the ‘weight economy’ and was in use in the transition between the barter economy and the coin economy.”
Additionally, the collection consisted of Arab coins, the largest source of silver during the Viking age, which is likely explained by the fur trade. By examining the features of the coins, it is predicted that the treasure is from around 900 AD. More notably, the Arab coins found were older than most Arab coins found in Norway thus far. Maixner also concluded that the value of the treasure during that time period would have been worth half a cow, which was quite substantial.
Although the discovery gives us insights into what the Viking Age was like, how the treasure ended up in the field will remain a mystery. “Perhaps the owner of the silver treasure found the trading post unsafe and hid their valuables in the entrance area to the plain. Here it remained for about 1,100 years,” said Maixner.