Historic Viking Age Hoard

Two metal detectorists in Norway recently landed the surprise of their lives when they unearthed a hoard of more than 3,000 coins hearkening back to the late Viking Age. The coins were discovered by Rune Sætre and Vegard Sørlie, whose metal-detecting foray in a field in eastern Norway yielded dozens, then hundreds, and eventually thousands of coins. As their April 10 find ballooned from a few coins into a recovery of historic magnitude, Sætre and Sørlie notified local officials. 

The cache of 3,150-plus local and foreign silver coins is now the largest Viking Age coin hoard ever found in Norway. These specimens, carrying references to rulers and prominent figures such as 11th-century King Cnut the Great and King Aethelred II of England, appear to have been buried sometime in the 1040s. Innlandet County archaeologist May-Tove Smiseth shared in a statement published by the University of Oslo that the trove is “a truly unique discovery of the kind one might only experience once in an entire career.” Smiseth went on to tell ScienceNorway, “It has been absolutely unbelievable to stand there and watch these coins be lifted out of the ground […] [A]nd to see the quality of the coins… They have been preserved so well that they almost look newly minted.” The coins are currently at the Cultural History Museum in Oslo.