Largest Viking-Era Coin Hoard Unearthed in Finland 

Metal detectorist Kalle Lappinen recently landed Finland’s largest cache of Viking Age coins and other treasures from the storied era. Found some 95 miles north of Helsinki near the town of Sysmä, the treasure amounted to nearly 10 pounds of silver coins and jewelry dating back to between A.D. 1000 and 1050, which places the relics from the Viking Age. 

However, archaeologist Esko Tikkala from the Lahti Historical Museum stressed to journalists at Live Science, which reported the discovery, that it’s unclear when the hoard was buried and that the pieces weren’t necessarily buried by Vikings. According to museum staff, “The term Viking Age does not imply that there were Vikings in Finland.”  They added, “There are quite a lot of coins in this hoard,” with possibly thousands of coins representing regions that make up modern-day Germany, Great Britain, and Sweden, as well as jewelry and other silver pieces.” 

Further archaeological investigations of the site will attempt to uncover evidence of why the coins might have been buried there, as well as possible other artifacts hiding in the soil. Viking Age hoards have also recently emerged in other Nordic countries. These discoveries have propagated further scientific interest and pop-culture curiosity about the colorful and enigmatic period that spanned from the Viking raid on an English monastery in Lindisfarne in A.D. 793 through 1066, when a Viking army was brought to its knees during the Battle of Stamford Bridge in England.