The mundane work of clearing grass and stones in a backyard has led to the discovery of Denmark’s largest known hoard of Viking Age silver. The finder, a man based in the northern Danish municipality of Rebild who wishes to remain anonymous, was preparing his garden for the construction of a new terrace when he came across the silver treasure, consisting of around 700 pieces, according to Danish cultural organization Nordjyske Museer, or North Jutland Museums. Among the pieces were a small Thor’s hammer, bracelets, many silver bars, cut-up objects and 47 coins, some whole and some fragmented, the museums group said in a statement. “It should have just been a few hours of hard gardening work removing stubborn grass, stones and gravel for a new tiled terrace, but it turned out to be the biggest surprise of my life,” the finder said in the statement. “After half an hour of digging, my grip hit something that made a strange sound,” he continued. “At first I thought it was old iron or fence wire and some potsherds, but when I started digging with my hands, I was suddenly able to fish one metal object after another out of the ground. After a short period of careful work, I realized that it was jewelry, coins and silver bars.” The silver hoard weighed 18.5 kilograms (41 pounds), which is nearly three times Denmark’s now-second-largest hoard of Viking Age silver, the so-called Terslevskat, which weighed approximately 6.5 kilograms (14 pounds), Nordjyske Museer said. In the newly discovered hoard, around 320 objects, weighing 6.4 kilograms (14 pounds), were found still in their original clay vessel, in which they are believed to have been placed in the 10th century. The other items were found in the soil. Most of the treasure’s weight comes from bars, jewelry and silver clips, with coins only making up a small part of it. During the Viking Age, silver bars, jewelry and scrap silver were used as a means of payment and to store value, with their weight determining their value, according the museums group. Due to this, silver was often cut into smaller pieces or melted down. The silver bars discovered in Rebild — an unusually large number — are grouped according to their weights, as are parts of the bracelets and scrap silver, which suggests they were organized purposefully as significant stocks of value, Nordjyske Museer said. “This is a find of great importance for our understanding of the Viking Age in Denmark,” archeologist Torben Sarauw, cultural heritage manager at Nordjyske Museer, said in the statement. “Not just because of its size, but also because the treasure so clearly shows how silver functioned as wealth and a means of payment in the Viking Age. It’s like finding a safe from the Viking Age.” Runes are engraved on one of the silver bars, with the inscription possibly reading as “hutu,” which could be a name, a mark of ownership, or some other form of significant marking, according to the museums group. The coins found were Arab and Anglo-Saxon, which Sarauw said testifies to how closely connected Denmark was to large parts of Europe and areas far to the east during the Viking Age. Two Anglo-Saxon coins were minted under King Edward the Elder, who came to rule most of England during his reign from 899 to 924. The Arab coins, known as dirhams, are cut up and have similar inscriptions to those found in silver hoards from the 9th century, Nordjyske Museer said. “The silver was hidden in Rebild, but it points to a much larger world,” Sarauw said. “The coins reveal that there were connections to the Islamic world in the east and England to the west, as well as a Viking Age where people, goods and values moved over enormous distances.” The Rebild area has been home to several discoveries of large Viking treasures, including the 1971 Rebildskat trove, which consisted of 4 kilograms (9 pounds) of silver that also dated to the 10th century, as well as the Rold treasure, found two months ago, that consisted of six intact gold bracelets. There won’t be a large archeological investigation at the site of the newly discovered hoard, however, because it is in a built-up area. The treasure has been submitted for assessment at Denmark’s National Museum. In the longer term, Nordjyske Museer said it is working on a permanent display of the silver treasure, together with the gold bracelets from the Rold treasure, at Fyrkat Viking Museum in northern Denmark.
